BILL  NTE' 


UNITED  •  • 
•-11 5TATE 


im/STRATED  BT  F.  OPPI 


ilRTHPLACE 

Solomons  in  "The  Road  Round 
'•  Colum.     (Macmillan)  • 


mm  i 


log  of  10,000  books  best  suited  to  tne 
needs  of  all  libraries  with  the  last 
previous  edition,  published  in  1904 
Miss  Isabella  Cooper,  who  compilec 
the  new  catalog,  points  out  that  in 
the  section  of  American  drama 
thirty-two  professional  playwrights 
are  represented,  while  in  the  1904  catalog  the  only  name  listed 
was  that  of  W.  D.  Howells.  Concerning  the  dramatists  whos 
work  is  in  demand,  Miss  Cooper  says:  "Eugene  O'Neill  is  outstand- 
ing, receiving  the  greatest  recognition  abroad  as  well  as  at  home.' 

John  Hargrave,  author  of  "Then  Came  Spring"  (Century  Co.) 
visualizes  his  fiction  characters  by  making  portraits  of  them  before 
he  begins  to  write  about  them.  But  then,  Mr.  Hargrave  was  an 
artist  before  he  became  a  novelist.  According  to  John  0' 'London's 
Weekly,  he  sold  his  first  picture  when  he  was  eight  years  old,  anc 
he  received  eight  pounds  for  it. 

Boni  &  Liveright  announce  for  publication  this  fall  a  new 
edition  of  Theodore  Dreiser's  novel,  "The  Financier."  Altho 
this  book  in  its  original  form  has  been  highly  praised,  Mr.  Dreiser 
was  never  satisfied  with  it.  In  the  fourteen  years  that  have 
passed  since  it  first  appeared,  he  has  been  working  on  it,  re- 
arranging, cutting,  clarifying,  accelerating  the  tempo,  until  he 
has  now  shaped  the  novel  into  the  form  in  which  he  originally 
planned  it.  The  publishers  feel  justified  in  announcing  it  asl 
virtually  a  new  book. 


the  times  < 
i  time,  whei 

hem  so  high  

enter  them,  with  the  result  that  recriminations  have 
y  back  and  forth  not  only  between  the  writers  of  in- 
)r  artistic  and  popular  rank  but — disgustingly — be- 
leophytes  of  both  ranks  and  between  the  near-artistic 
41ectual  and  the  near-popular.  Bill  Nye  to-day  would 
dicament.  He  would  probably  be  in  a  large  authors' 
>arred  from  the  American  Academy  on  the  one  hand 
le  little  group  of  Serious  Thinkers  on  the  other, 
mdition  he  would  not  deserve,  and  I  have  an  idea  that, 
ould  make  fun  of  the  situation,  it  would  deeply  pain 
aps  he  would  take  solace  with  Milt  Gross  and  the 
bbers,  or  be  adopted  by  Mencken  and  Van  Vechten 

Ring  Lardner,  but  I  believe 'that  some  of  the  fine 
luld  be  taken  from  him,  and  his  starched  shirt  would 
tiffer. 

3iJl  Xye  coming  among  us  to-day,  rising  unwarned 
ive.  Would  he  come  to  us  as  he  came  from  Maine  and 
mple  a-nd  expansive?  He  might,  but  I  think  that  the 
lis  lips  would  freeze  the  least  bit.  Somehow  I  suspect 
(Continued  on  page  779} 


I  many  lesser 

upon  a  'Masque  of 
ited  at  the  marriage  of 
dy  Frances  Howard." 
irteen.  But  if  he  had 

the  lady  from  whom 
i  who  must  "accom- 
:ley,  in  Staffordshire," 
7f  detective  stories  are 

b.  a  couple  of  murder 
)minie  who  ran  foul  of 
extraordinary  suit  for 
,  with  its  touches  of 
is  a  most  entertaining 
called  "Indian  Peter" 


head.    Illustrated.    New 


COPYRIGHT,  1894, 

BY 
J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY. 


PRINTED    BY    J.   B.  LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY,   PHILADELPHIA,   U.S.A. 


PREFACE 


FACTS  in  a  nude  state 
are  not  liable  criminally, 
any  more  than  bright  and 
beautiful  children  commit 
a  felony  by  being  born 
thus  ;  but  it  is  the  solemn 
duty  of  those  having  these 
children  in  charge  to  put 
appropriate,  healthful,  and 
even  attractive  apparel 
upon  them  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment. 

It  is  thus  with  facts. 
They  are  the  frame-work 
of.  history,  not  the  dra- 


6  PREFACE. 

pery.  They  are  like  the  cold,  hard,  dishevelled, 
damp,  and  uncomfortable  body  under  the  knife 
of  the  demonstrator,  not  the  bright  and  bounding 
boy,  clothed  in  graceful  garments  and  filled  to 
every  tingling  capillary  with  a  soul. 

We,  each  of  us,  the  artist  and  the  author,  re- 
spect facts.  We  have  never,  either  of  us,  said 
an  unkind  word  regarding  facts.  But  we  believe 
that  they  should  not  be  placed  before  the  public 
exactly  as  they  were  born.  We  want  to  see  them 
embellished  and  beautified.  That  is  why  this  his- 
tory is  written. 

Certain  facts  have  come  into  the  possession  of 
the  artist  and  author  of  this  book  regarding  the 
history  of  the  Republic  down  to  the  present  day. 
We  find,  upon  looking  over  the  records  and  docu- 
ments on  file  in  the  various  archives  of  state  and 
nation,  that  they  are  absolutely  beyond  question, 
and  it  is  our  object  to  give  these  truthfully. 
These  rough  and  untidy,  but  impregnable  truths, 
dressed  in  the  sweet  persuasive  language  of  the 
author,  and  fluted,  embossed,  embroidered,  and 
embellished  by  the  skilful  hand  of  the  artist,  are 
now  before  you. 

History  is  but  the  record  of  the   public  and 


PREFACE.  7 

official  acts  of  human  beings.  It  is  our  object, 
therefore,  to  humanize  our  history  and  deal  with 
people  past  and  present ;  people  who  ate  and  pos- 
sibly drank  ;  people  who  were  born,  flourished, 
and  died  ;  not  grave  tragedians,  posing  perpet- 
ually for  their  photographs. 

If  we  succeed  in  this  way,  and  administer  his- 
torical truth  in  the  smooth  capsule  of  the  cartoon- 
ist and  the  commentator,  we  are  content.  If  not, 
we  know  whose  fault  it  will  be,  but  will  not  get 
mad  and  swear  about  it. 

BILL  NYE. 

FRED'K  B.  OFFER, 


CHAPTER    I.  PAGE 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 13 

CHAPTER    II. 
OTHER  DISCOVERIES — WET  AND  DRY 23 

CHAPTER    III. 
THE  THIRTEEN  ORIGINAL  COLONIES 36 

CHAPTER    IV. 
THE  PLYMOUTH  COLONY 47 

CHAPTER    V. 

DRAWBACKS  OF  BEING  A  COLONIST 55 

9 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    VI. 
THE  EPISODE  OF  THE  CHARTER  OAK 62 

CHAPTER    VII. 
THE  DISCOVERY  OF  NEW  YORK 72 

CHAPTER    VIII. 
THE  DUTCH  AT  NEW  AMSTERDAM 82 

CHAPTER    IX. 
SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  MIDDLE  STATES 92 

CHAPTER     X. 
THE  EARLY  ARISTOCRACY .    102 

CHAPTER    XI. 
INTERCOLONIAL  AND  INDIAN  WARS no 

CHAPTER    XII. 
PERSONALITY  OF  WASHINGTON 124 

CHAPTER    XIII. 
CONTRASTS  WITH  THE  PRESENT  DAY 131 

CHAPTER    XIV. 
THE  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR 142 

CHAPTER    XV. 
BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN,  LL.D.,  PnG ,  F.R.S.,  ETC 152 

CHAPTER    XVI. 
THE  CRITICAL  PERIOD 160 

CHAPTER    XVII. 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  END 170 


CONTENTS.  1 1 

CHAPTER    XVIII.  PAGE 

THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 181 

CHAPTER    XIX. 
THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT I91 

CHAPTER    XX. 
THE  WAR  WITH  CANADA 203 

CHAPTER    XXL 
THE  ADVANCE  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 212 

CHAPTER    XXII. 
MORE  DIFFICULTIES  STRAIGHTENED  OUT      222 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 
THE  WEBSTERS 233 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 
BEFO'  THE  WAH — CAUSES  WHICH  LED  TO  IT — MASTERLY  GRASP 

OF  THE  SUBJECT  SHOWN  BY  THE  AUTHOR 243 

CHAPTER    XXV. 
BULL  RUN  AND  OTHER  BATTLES 252 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 
SOME  MORE  FRATRICIDAL  STRIFE 263 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 

STILL  MORE  FRATERNAL  BLOODSHED,  ON  PRINCIPLE — OUTING 
FEATURES  DISAPPEAR,  AND  GIVE  PLACE  TO  STRAINED  RELA- 
TIONS BETWEEN  COMBATANTS,  WHO  BEGIN  TO  Mix  THINGS  .  274 

CHAPTER    XXVIIL 
LAST  YEAR  OF  THE  DISAGREEABLE  WAR 284 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XXIX.  PAGE 

Too  MUCH  LIBERTY  IN  PLACES  AND  NOT  ENOUGH  ELSEWHERE. — 
THOUGHTS  ON  THE  LATE  WAR — WHO  is  THE  BIGGER  ASS, 

THE  MAN  WHO  WILL  NOT  FORGIVE  AND  FORGET,  OR  THE 
MAWKISH  AND  MOIST- EYED  SNIVELLER  WHO  WANTS  TO  DO 
THAT  ALL  THE  TIME  ? 297 

CHAPTER    XXX. 

RECONSTRUCTION  WITHOUT  PAIN — ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JOHNSON 
AND  GRANT 305 

CHAPTER    XXXI. 
CLOSING  CHRONICLES 317 

APPENDIX 329 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    DISCOVERY   OF   AMERICA. 

IT  was  a  beautiful  evening  at  the  close  of  a 
warm,  luscious  day  in  old  Spain.     It  was  such 
an  evening  as  one  would  select  for  trysting 
purposes.     The  honeysuckle  gave  out  the  sweet 
announcement  of  its  arrival  on  the  summer  breeze, 
and  the  bulbul  sang  in  the  dark  vistas  of  olive- 
trees, — sang  of  his  love  and  his  hope,  and  of  the 
victory  he  anticipated  in  the  morrow's  bulbul-fight, 
and   the  plaudits  of  the  royal  couple  who  would 

2  I3 


14  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

be  there.  The  pink  west  paled  away  to  the  touch 
of  twilight,  and  the  soft  zenith  was  sown  with 
stars  coming  like  celestial  fire-flies  on  the  breast 
of  a  mighty  meadow. 

Across  the  dusk,  with  bowed  head,  came  a 
woman.  Her  air  was  one  of  proud  humility.  It 
was  the  air  of  royalty  in  the  presence  of  an  over- 
ruling power.  It  was  Isabella.  She  was  on  her 
way  to  confession.  She  carried  a  large,  beauti- 
fully-bound volume  containing  a  memorandum  of 
her  sins  for  the  day.  Ever  and  anon  she  would 
refer  to  it,  but  the  twilight  had  come  on  so  fast 
that  she  could  not  read  it. 

Reaching  the  confessional,  she  kneeled,  and,  by 
the  aid  of  her  notes,  she  told  off  to  the  good 
Father  and  receptacle  of  the  queen's  trifling  sins, 
Fernando  de  Talavera,  how  wicked  she  had  been. 
When  it  was  over  and  the  queen  had  risen  to  go, 


ISABELLA    AT    CONFESSIONAL. 


THE  DISCO  VER  Y  OF  AMERICA.  1 5 

Fernando  came  forth,  and  with  a  solemn  obei- 
sance said, — 

"  May  it  please  your  Majesty,  I  have  to-day 
received  a  letter  from  my  good  friend  the  prior 
of  the  Franciscan  convent  of  St.  Mary's  of  Ra- 
bida  in  Andalusia.  With  your  Majesty's  permis- 
sion, I  will  read  it  to  you." 

"  Proceed,"  exclaimed  Isabella,  gravely,  taking 
a  piece  of  crochet-work  from  her  apron  and  seat- 
ing herself  comfortably  near  the  dim  light. 

"It  is  dated  the  sixth  month  and  tenth  day  of 
the  month,  and  reads  as  follows  : 

"  DEAR  BROTHER  : 

"This  letter  will  be  conveyed  unto  your  hands 
by  the  bearer  hereof.  His  name  is  Christopher 
Columbus,  a  native  of  Genoa,  who  has  been  liv- 
ing on  me  for  two  years.  But  he  is  a  good  man, 
devout  and  honest.  He  is  willing  to  work,  but  I 
have  nothing  to  do  in  his  line.  Times,  as  you 
know,  are  dull,  and  in  his  own  profession  nothing 
seems  to  be  doing. 

"  He  is  by  profession  a  discoverer.  He  has 
been  successful  in  the  work  where  he  has  had 
opportunities,  and  there  has  been  no  complaint 
so  far  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  employed 
him.  Everything  he  has  ever  discovered  has 
remained  that  way,  so  he  is  willing  to  let  his 
work  show  for  itself. 


1 6  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

"  Should  you  be  able  to  bring  this  to  the  notice 
of  her  Majesty,  who  is  tender  of  heart,  I  would 
be  most  glad  ;  and  should  her  most  gracious  Maj- 
esty have  any  discovering  to  be  done,  or  should 
she  contemplate  a  change  or  desire  to  substitute 
another  in  the  place  of  the  present  discoverer, 
she  will  do  well  to  consider  the  qualifications  of 
my  friend. 

"  Very  sincerely  and  fraternally  thine, 

"  Etc.,  etc." 

The  queen  inquired  still  further  regarding 
Columbus,  and,  taking  the  letter,  asked  Talavera 
to  send  him  to  the  royal  sitting-room  at  ten 
o'clock  the  following  day. 

When  Columbus  arose  the  next  morning  he 
found  a  note  from  the  royal  confessor,  and,  with- 
out waiting  for  breakfast,  for  he  had  almost  over- 
come the  habit  of  eating,  he  reversed  his  cuffs, 
and,  taking  a  fresh  handkerchief  from  his  valise 
and  putting  it  in  his  pocket  so  that  the  corners 
would  coyly  stick  out  a  little,  he  was  soon  on  his 
way  to  the  palace.  He  carried  also  a  small  globe 
wrapped  up  in  a  newspaper. 

The  interview  was  encouraging  until  the  matter 
of  money  necessary  for  the  trip  was  touched  upon. 
His  Majesty  was  called  in,  and  spoke  sadly  of 
the  public  surplus.  He  said  that  there  were  one 
hundred  dollars  still  due  on  his  own  salary,  and 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA. 


the  palace  had  not  been  painted  for  eight  years. 
He  had  taken  orders  on  the  store  till  he  was  tired 
of  it.  "  Our  meat  bill,"  said  he,  taking  off  his 
crown  and  mashing  a  hornet  on  the  wall,  "  is 
sixty  days  overdue.  We  owe  the  hired  girl  for 
three  weeks  ;  and  how  are  we  going  to  get  funds 
enough  to  do  any  discovering,  when  you  re- 
member that  we  have  got  to  pay  for  an  extra 
session  this  fall  for  the  purpose  of  making  money 
plenty?" 

But  Isabella  came  and  sat  by  him  in  her  win- 
ning way,  and  with  the  moistened  corner  of  her 
handkerchief  removed  a  spot  of  maple  syrup 

from  the  er- 
mine   trim- 
ming of  his 
reigning 
gown.   She 
patted  his 
hand,  and, 
with    her 


COLUMBUS    AT    COURT. 
2* 


1 8  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

gentle  voice,  cheered  him  and  told  him  that  if  he 
would  economize  and  go  without  cigars  or  wine, 
in  less  than  two  hundred  years  he  would  have 
saved  enough  to  fit  Columbus  out. 

A  few  weeks  later  he  had  saved  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  in  this  way.  The  queen  then 
went  at  twilight  and  pawned  a  large  breastpin, 
and,  although  her  chest  was  very  sensitive  to 
cold,  she  went  without  it  all  the  following  winter, 
in  order  that  Columbus  might  discover  America 
before  immigration  set  in  here. 

Too  much  cannot  be  said  of  the  heroism  of 
Queen  Isabella  and  the  courage  of  her  convic- 
tions. A  man  would  'have  said,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, that  there  would  be  no  sense  in 
discovering  a  place  that  was  not  popular.  Why 
discover  a  place  when  it  is  so  far  out  of  the  way  ? 
Why  discover  a  country  with  no  improvements  ? 
Why  discover  a  country  that  is  so  far  from  the 
railroad  ?  Why  discover,  at  great  expense,  an 
entirely  new  country  ? 

But  Isabella  did  not  stop  to  listen  to  these 
croaks.  In  the  language  of  the  Honorable  Jere- 
miah M.  Rusk,  "  She  seen  her  duty  and  she  done 
it."  That  was  Isabella's  style. 

Columbus  now  began  to  select  steamer-chairs 
and  rugs.  He  had  already  secured  the  Nina, 
Pinta,  and  Santa  Maria,  and  on  the  3d  of  August, 
1492,  he  sailed  from  Palos. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA. 


Isabella  brought  him  a  large  bunch  of 
beautiful  flowers  as  he  was  about  to  sail, 
and  Ferdinand  gave  him  a  nice  yachting- 
cap  and  a  spicy  French  novel  to  read  on 
the  road. 

He  was  .given  a  com- 
mission as  viceroy  or  gov- 
ernor of  all  the  lands  he 
might  discover,  with  hunt- 
ing and  shooting  privileges 
on  same. 


He    stopped    several 


COLUMBUS  s  STEAMEK-CHAIR. 


weeks    at     the    Canary 

Islands,  where  he  and  his  one  hundred  and  twenty 
men  rested  and  got  fresh  water.  He  then  set  out 
sailing  due  west  over  an  unknown  sea  to  blaze 
the  way  for  liberty. 

Soon,  however,  his  men  began  to  murmur. 
They  began  also  to  pick  on  Columbus  and  oc- 
cupy his  steamer-chair  when  he  wanted  to  use  it 
himself.  They  got  to  making  chalk-marks  on  the 
deck  and  compelling  him  to  pay  a  shilling  before 
he  could  cross  them.  Some  claimed  that  they 
were  lost  and  that  they  had  been  sailing  around 
for  over  a  week  in  a  circle,  one  man  stating  that 
he  recognized  a  spot  in  the  sea  that  they  had 
passed  eight  times  already. 

Finally  they  mutinied,  and  started  to  throw  the 
great  navigator  overboard,  but  he  told  them  that 


20  HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

if  they  would  wait  until  the  next  morning  he 
would  tell  them  a  highly  amusing  story  that  he 
heard  just  before  he  left  Palos. 

Thus  his  life  was  saved,  for  early  in  the  morning 
the  cry  of  "  Land  ho  !"  was  heard,  and  America 
was  discovered. 

A  saloon  was  at  once  started,  and  the  first  step 
thus  taken  towards  the  foundation  of  a  republic. 
From  that  one  little  timid  saloon,  with  its  family 
entrance,  has  sprung  the  magnificent  and  majestic 
machine  which,  lubricated  with  spoils  and  driven 
by  wind,  gives  to  every  American  to-day  the  right 
to  live  under  a  Government  selected  for  him  by 
men  who  make  that  their  business. 

Columbus  discovered  America  several  times 
after  the  I2th  of  October,  1492,  and  finally,  while 
prowling  about  looking  for  more  islands,  discov- 
ered South  America  near  the  mouth  of  the  Ori- 
noco. 

He  was  succeeded  as  governor  by  Francisco  de 
Bobadilla,  who  sent  him  back  finally  in  chains. 
Thus  we  see  that  the  great  are  not  always  happy. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  millions  of  people  every 
year  avoid  many  discomforts  by  remaining  in 
obscurity. 

The  life  of  Columbus  has  been  written  by  hun- 
dreds of  men,  both  in  this  country  and  abroad, 
but  the  foregoing  facts  are  distilled  from  this 
great  biographical  mass  by  skilful  hands,  and, 


22  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

like  the  succeeding  pages,  will  stand  for  centuries 
unshaken  by  the  bombardment  of  the  critic,  while 
succeeding  years  shall  try  them  with  frost  and 
thaw,  and  the  tide  of  time  dash  high  against 
their  massive  front,  only  to  recede,  quelled  and 
defeated.* 

*  The  author  acknowledges  especially  the  courtesy  of  San  Diego 
Colon  Columbus,  a  son  of  the  great  navigator,  whose  book  "  Histori- 
adores  Primitives"  was  so  generously  loaned  the  author  by  relatives  of 
young  Columbus. 

I  have  refrained  from  announcing  in  the  foregoing  chapter  the  death 
of  Columbus,  which  occurred  May  20,  1506,  at  Valladolid,  the  funeral 
taking  place  from  his  late  residence,  because  I  dislike  to  give  needless 
pain.  B.  N. 


CHAPTER    II. 

OTHER    DISCOVERIES WET    AND    DRY. 

A  M  ERIC  A  had  many  other  discoverers  be- 
,/~\  sides  Columbus,  but  he  seems  to  have 
made  more  satisfactory  arrangements  with 
the  historians  than  any  of  the  others.  He  had 
genius,  and  was  also  a  married  man.  He  was  a 
good  after-dinner  speaker,  and  was  first  to  use 

23 


24  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

the  egg  trick,  which  so  many  after-dinner  speak- 
ers have  since  wished  they  had  thought  of  before 
Chris  did. 

In  falsifying  the  log-book  in  order  to  make  his 
sailors  believe  that  they  had  not  sailed  so  far  as 
they  had,  Columbus  did  a  wrong  act,  unworthy  of 
his  high  notions  regarding  the  pious  discovery  of 
this  land.  The  artist  has  shown  here  not  only 
one  of  the  most  faithful  portraits  of  Columbus 
and  his  crooked  log-book,  but  the  punishment 
which  he  should  have  received. 

The  man  on  the  left  is  Columbus  ;  History 
is  concealed  just  around  the  corner  in  a  loose 
wrapper. 

Spain  at  this  time  regarded  the  new  land  as 
a  vast  jewelry  store  in  charge  of  simple  children 
of  the  forest  who  did  not  know- the  value  of  their 
rich  agricultural  lands  or  gold-ribbed  farms. 
Spain,  therefore,  expected  to  exchange  bone  col- 
lar-buttons with  the  children  of  the  forest  for 
opals  as  large  as  lima  beans,  and  to  trade  fiery 
liquids  to  them  for  large  gold  bricks. 

The  Montezumas  were  compelled  every  little 
while  to  pay  a  freight-bill  for  the  Spanish  confi- 
dence man. 

Ponce  de  Leon  had  started  out  in  search  of  the 
Hot  Springs  of  Arkansas,  and  in  1512  came  in 
sight  of  Florida.  He  was  not  successful  in  his 
attempt  to  find  the  Fountain  of  Youth,  and  re- 


OTHER  DISCOVERIES— WET  AND  DRY. 


turned  an  old  man  so  deaf  that  in  the  language  of 
the  Hoosier  poet  referring  to  his  grandfather, — 

"So  remarkably  deaf  was  my  grandfather  Squeers 
That  he  had  to  wear  lightning-rods  over  his  ears 
To  even  hear  thunder,  and  oftentimes  then 
He  was  forced  to  request  it  to  thunder  again." 

Balboa  crossed  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  and, 
rolling  up  his  pantalettes,  waded  into  the  Pacific 
Ocean  and  discovered  it  in  the  name  of  Spain. 
It  was  one  of  the  largest  and  wettest  discoveries 
ever  made,  and,  though  this  occurred  over  three 
centuries  ago,  Spain  is  still  poor. 

Balboa,  in  discovering  the  Pacific,  did  so  accord- 
ing to  the  Spanish  custom  of  discovery,  viz.,  by 
wading  into  it  with  his  naked  sword  in  one 
hand  and  the  banner  of  Castile,  sometimes 
called  Castile's  hope  (see 


BALBOA  DRYING  HIS  CLOTHES. 
3 


26  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Appendix),  in  the  other.  He  and  his  followers 
waded  out  so  as  to  discover  all  they  could,  and 
were  surprised  to  discover  what  is  now  called  the 
undertow. 

The  artist  has  shown  the  great  discoverer  most 
truthfully  as  he  appeared  after  he  had  discovered 
and  filed  on  the  ocean.  No  one  can  look  upon 
this  picture  for  a  moment  and  confuse  Balboa, 
the  discoverer  of  the  Pacific,  with  Kope  Elias, 
who  first  discovered  in  the  mountains  of  North 
Carolina  what  is  now  known  as  moonshine  whis- 
key. 

De  Narvaez  in  1528  undertook  to  conquer 
Florida  with  three  hundred  hands.  He  also 
pulled  considerable  grass  in  his  search  for  gold. 
Finally  he  got  to  the  gulf  and  was  wrecked. 
They  were  all  related  mostly  to  Narvaez,  and 
for  two  weeks  they  lived  on  their  relatives,  but 
later  struck  shore — four  of  them — and  lived  more 
on  a  vegetable  diet  after  that  till  they  struck  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  which  now  belonged  to  Spain. 

De  Soto  also  undertook  the  conquest  of  Florida 
after  this,  and  took  six  hundred  men  with  him  for 
the  purpose.  They  wandered  through  the  Gulf 
States  to  the  Mississippi,  enduring  much,  and 
often  forced  to  occupy  the  same  room  at  night. 
De  Soto  in  1541  discovered  the  Mississippi  River, 
thus  adding  to  the  moisture  collection  of  Spain. 

After  trying  to  mortgage  his  discovery  to  East- 


OTHER   DISCOVERIES— WET  AND   DRY.         27 

ern  capitalists,  he  died,  and  was  buried  in  the 
quiet  bosom  of  the  Great  Father  of  waters. 

Thus  once  more  the  list  of  fatalities  was  added 
to  and  the  hunger  for  gold  was  made  to  contrib- 
ute a  discovery. 

Menendez  later  on  founded  in  1565  the  colony 
of  St.  Augustine,  the  oldest  town  in  the  United 
States.  There  are  other  towns  that  look  older, 
but  it  is  on  account  of  dissipation.  New  York 
looks  older,  but  it  is  because  she  always  sat  up 
later  of  nights  than  St.  Augustine  did. 

Cortez  was  one  of  the  coarsest  men  who  vis- 
ited this  country.  He  did  not  marry  any  wealthy 
American  girls,  for  there  were  none,  but  he  did 
everything  else  that  was  wrong,  and  his  unpaid 
laundry-bills  are  still  found  all  over  the  Spanish- 
speaking  countries.  He  was  especially  lawless 
and  cruel  to  the  Peruvians:  "  recognizing  the 
Peruvian  at  once  by  his  bark,"  he  would  treat 
him  with  great  indignity,  instead  of  using  other 
things  which  he  had  with  him.  Cortez  had  a  way 
of  capturing  the  most  popular  man  in  a  city,  and 
then  he  would  call  on  the  tax-payers  to  redeem 
him  on  the  instalment  plan.  Most  everybody 
hated  Cortez,  and  when  he  held  religious  ser- 
vices the  neighbors  did  not  attend.  The  religious 
efforts  made  by  Cortez  were  not  successful.  He 
killed  a  great  many  people,  but  converted  but 
few. 


28 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED  STATES, 


The  historian  desires  at  this  time  to  speak 
briefly  of  the  methods  of  Cortez  from  a  commer- 
cial standpoint. 

Will  the  reader  be  good  enough  to  cast  his 
eye  on  the 

Cortez  se- 

cunties  as 
shown  in 
the  picture 


IN 

3  O     3>  A  YS .  w  i  u  <_ 

BE     PROMPTLY 

EXECUTED 


BANK    OF    CORTEZ. 


drawn   from   memory  by  an  artist  yet  a  perfect 
gentleman  ? 

Notice  the  bonds  Nos.  18  and  27.  Do  you 
notice  the  listening  attitude  of  No.  18?  He  is 
listening  to  the  accumulating  interest.  Note  the 


OTHER   DISCOVERIES— WET  AND   DRY.         29 

aged  and  haggard  look  of  No.  27.  He  has  just 
begun  to  notice  that  he  is  maturing. 

Cast  your  eye  on  the  prone  form  of  No.  31. 
He  has  just  fallen  due,  and  in  doing  so  has  hurt 
his  crazy-bone  (see  Appendix). 

Be  good  enough  to  study  the  gold-bearing  bond 
behind  the  screen.  See  the  look  of  anguish. 
Some  one  has  cut  off  a  coupon  probably.  Cortez 
was  that  kind  of  a  man.  He  would  clip  the  ear 
of  an  Inca  and  make  him  scream  with  pain,  so 
that  his  friends  would  come  in  and  redeem  him. 
Once  the  bank  examiner  came  to  examine  the 
Cortez  bank.  He  imparted  a  pleasing  flavor  on 
the  following  day  to  the  soup. 

Spain  owned  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  West  Indies,  Yucatan,  Mexico,  and 
Florida,  besides  unlimited  water  facilities  and  the 
Peruvian  preserves. 

North  Carolina  was  discovered  by  the  French 
navigator  Verrazani,  thirty  years  later  than  Cabot 
did,  but  as  Cabot  did  not  record  his  claim  at  the 
court-house  in  Wilmington  the  Frenchman  jumped 
the  claim  in  1524,  and  the  property  remained 
about  the  same  till  again  discovered  by  George 
W.  Vanderbilt  in  the  latter  part  of  the  present 
century. 

Montreal  was  discovered  in  1535  by  Cartier, 
also  a  Frenchman. 

Ribaut  discovered  South  Carolina,  and  left  thirty 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 


men  to  hold  it.  They  were  at  that  time  the  only 
white  men  from  Mexico  to  the  North  Pole,  and  a 
keen  business  man  could  have  bought  the  whole 
thing,  Indians  and  all,  for  a  good  team  and  a  jug 
of  nepenthe.  But  why  repine  ? 

The  Jesuit  missionaries  about  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century  pushed  their  way  to  the  North 
Mississippi  and  sought  to  convert 
the  Indians.     The  Jesuits  deserve 


CONVERTING    INDIANS. 


great  credit  for  their 
patience,  endurance,  and  industry,  but  they  were 
shocked  to  find  the  Indian  averse  to  work.  They 
also  advanced  slowly  in  church  work,  and  would 
often  avoid  early  mass  that  they  might  catch  a 
mess  of  trout  or  violate  the  game  law  by  killing  a 
Dakotah  in  May. 

Father  Marquette  discovered  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi not  far  from  a  large  piece  of  suburban  prop- 
erty owned  by  the  author,  north  of  Minneapolis. 


OTHER   DISCOVERIES— WET  AND   DRY.         31 


The  ground  has    not    been   disturbed   since   dis- 
covered by  Father  Marquette. 

The  English  also  discovered  America  from  time 
to  time,  the  Cabots  finding  Labrador  while  en- 
deavoring to  go  to  Asia  via  the  North,  and  Fro- 
bisher  discovered  Baffin  Bay  in  1576  while  on  a 
like  mission.  The  Spanish  discovered  the  water 
mostly,  and  England  the  ice  belonging  to  North 
America. 

Sir  Francis  Drake  also  discovered  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  afterward  sailed  an  English  ship  on 
its  waters,  discovering  Oregon. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  with  the  endorsement  of 
his  half-brother,  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  regarding 
the  idea  of  colonization  of  America,  and  being  a 
great  friend  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  got  out  a  patent 
on  Virginia. 

He  planted  a  colony 
and  a  patch  of  tobacco 
on  Roanoke  Island,  but 
the  colonists  did  not  care 
for  agriculture,  preferring 
to    hunt    for    gold    and 
pearls.     In  this  way  they 
soon  ran  out  of  food,  and 
were  constantly  harassed 
by  Indians. 

It  was  an  odd  sight  to 
witness  a  colonist  coming 


COULD    NOT    REACH     THEM. 


32  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

home  after  a  long  hard  day  hunting  for  pearls  as 
he  asked  his  wife  if  she  would  be  good  enough  to 
pull  an  arrow  out  of  some  place  which  he  could 
not  reach  himself. 

Raleigh   spent  two   hundred   thousand    dollars 
in  his  efforts  to  colonize  Virginia,  and  then,  dis- 


RALEIGH'S  ASTONISHMENT. 


gusted,  divided  up  his  patent  and  sold  county 
rights  to  it  at  a  pound  apiece.  This  was  in  1589. 
Raleigh  learned  the  use  of  smoking  tobacco  at 
this  time. 

He  was  astonished  when  he  tried  it  first,  and 
threatened  to  change  his  boarding-place  or  take 
his  meals  out,  but  soon  enjoyed  it,  and  before 


OTHER  DISCOVERIES— WET  AND  DRY.        33 

he  had  been  home  a  week  Queen  Elizabeth 
thought  it  to  be  an  excellent  thing  for  her  house 
plants.  It  is  now  extensively  used  in  the  best 
narcotic  circles. 

Several  other  efforts  were  made  by  the  English 
to  establish  colonies  in  this  country,  but  the  In- 


RALEIGH  S    ENJOYMENT. 


dians  thought  that  these  English  people  bathed 
too  much,  and  invited  perspiration  between 
baths. 

One  can  see  readily  that  the  Englishman 
with  his  portable  bath-tub  has  been  a  flag  of 
defiance  from  the  earliest  discoveries  till  this 
day. 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

This  chapter  brings  us  to  the  time  when  set- 
tlements were  made  as  follows  : 

The  French  at  Port  Royal,  N.S.,  1605. 
The  English  at  Jamestown  .  .  1607. 
The  French  at  Quebec  .  .  .  1608. 
The  Dutch  at  New  York  .  .  .1613. 
The  English  at  Plymouth  .  .  .  1620. 


The  author's  thanks  are  due  to  the  following  books  of  reference, 
which,  added  to  his  retentive  memory,  have  made  the  foregoing  state- 
ments accurate  yet  pleasing  : 

A  Summer  in  England  with  H.  W.  Beecher.     By  J.  B.  Reed. 

Russell's  Digest  of  the  Laws  of  Minnesota,  with  Price- List  of  Mem- 
bers. 

Out-Door  and  Bug  Life  in  America.  By  Chilblainy,  Chief  of  the 
Umatilla. 

Why  I  am  an  Indian.  By  S.  Bull.  With  Notes  by  Ole  Bull  and 
Introduction  by  John  Bull. 


CHAPTER    III. 


THE   THIRTEEN    ORIGINAL   COLONIES. 

THIS  chapter  is  given 
up  almost  wholly  to 
facts.  It  deals  largely 
with  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteen  original  colonies 
from  which  sprang  the  Re- 
public, the  operation  of 
which  now  gives  so  many 
thousands  of  men  in-door 
employment  four  years  at 
a  time,  thus  relieving  the 
penitentiaries  and  throwing 
more  kindergarten  states- 
men to  the  front. 
It  was  during  this  epoch  that  the  Cavaliers 
landed  in  Virginia  and  the  Puritans  in  Massa- 
chusetts ;  the  latter  lived  on  maple  sugar  and 
armed  prayer,  while  the  former  saluted  his  cow, 
and,  with  bared  head,  milked  her  with  his  hat  in 
one  hand  and  his  life  in  the  other. 

Immigration  now  began  to  increase  along  the 
coast.     The  Mayflower  began  to  bring  over  vast 
36 


SAMPLE    PURITAN. 


THE    THIRTEEN  ORIGINAL    COLONIES.         37 

quantities  of  antique  furniture,  mostly  hall-clocks 
for  future  sales.  Hanging  them  on  spars  and 
masts  during  rough  weather  easily  accounts  for 
the  fact  that  none  of  them  have  ever  been  known 
to  go. 


The  Puritans  now  began  to  barter  with  the 
Indians,  swapping  square  black  bottles  of  liquid 
hell  for  farms  in  Massachusetts  and  additions  to 
log  towns.  Dried  apples  and  schools  began  to 
make  their  appearance.  The  low  retreating  fore- 
head of  the  codfish  began  to  be  seen  at  the 
stores,  and  virtue  began  to  break  out  among  the 
Indians  after  death. 

Virginia,  however,  deserves   mention  here  on 

4 


38  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  start.  This  colony  was  poorly  prepared  to 
tote  wood  and  sleep  out-of-doors,  as  the  people 
were  all  gents  by  birth.  They  had  no  families, 
but  came  to  Virginia  to  obtain  fortunes  and  return 
to  the  city  of  New  York  in  September.  The  cli- 
mate was  unhealthy,  and  before  the  first  autumn, 
says  Sir  William  Kronk,  from  whom  I  quote,  "ye 
greater  numberr  of  them  hade  perished  of  a  great 
Miserrie  in  the  Side  and  for  lacke  of  Food,  for  at 
thatte  time  the  Crosse  betweene  the  wilde  hyena 
and  the  common  hogge  of  the  Holy  Lande,  and 
since  called  the  Razor  Backe  Hogge,  had  not 
been  made,  and  so  many  of  the  courtiers  dyede." 

John  Smith  saved  the  colony.  He  was  one  of 
the  best  Smiths  that  ever  came  to  this  country, 
which  is  as  large  an  encomium  as  a  man  cares  to 
travel  with.  He  would  have  saved  the  life  of 
Pocahontas,  an  Indian  girl  who  also  belonged  to 
the  gentry  of  their  tribe,  but  she  saw  at  once  that 
it  would  be  a  point  for  her  to  save  him,  so  after  a 
month's  rehearsal  with  her  father  as  villain,  with 
Smith's  part  taken  by  a  chunk  of  blue-gum  wood, 
they  succeeded  in  getting  this  little  curtain-raiser 
to  perfection. 

Pocahontas  was  afterwards  married,  if  the  au- 
thor's memory  does  not  fail  him,  to  John  Rolfe. 
Pocahontas  was  not  beautiful,  but  many  good  peo- 
ple sprang  from  her.  She  never  touched  them. 
Her  husband  sprang  from  her  also  just  in  time. 


THE    THIRTEEN  ORIGINAL    COLONIES.         39 

The  way  she  jumped  from  a  clay-eating  crowd 
into  the  bosom  of  the  English  aristocracy  by  this 
dramatic  ruse  was  worthy  of  a  greater  recogni- 
tion than  merely  to  figure  among  the  makers  of 
smoking-tobacco  with  fancy  wrappers,  when  she 
never  had  a  fancy  wrapper  in  her  life. 

Smith  was  captured  once  by  the  Indians,  and, 
instead  of  telling  them  that  he  was  by  birth  a 
gent,  he  gave  them 
a  course  of  lec- 
tures on  the  use 
of  the  com- 
p  a  s  s     and 
how  to  learn 
where 
one  is 


THE    REHEARSAL. 


at.  Thus  one  after  another  the  Indians  went 
away.  I  often  wonder  why  the  lecture  is  not  used 
more  as  a  means  of  escape  from  hostile  people. 

By  writing  a  letter  and  getting  a  reply  to  it,  he 
made  another  hit.  He  now  became  a  great  man 
among  the  Indians  ;  and  to  kill  a  dog  and  fail  to 
invite  Smith  to  the  symposium  was  considered  as 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

vulgar  as  it  is  now  to  rest  the  arctic  overshoe  on 
the  corner  of  the  dining-table  while  buckling  or 
unbuckling  it. 

Afterward  Smith  fell  into  the  hands  of  Pow- 
hatan,  the  Croker  of  his  time,  and  narrowly  saved 
his  life,  as  we  have  seen,  through  the  intervention 
of  Pocahontas. 

Smith  was  now  required  in  England  to  preside 
at  a  dinner  given  by  the  Savage  Club,  and  to  tell 
a  few  stories  of  life  in  the  Far  West. 

While  he  was  gone  the  settlement  became  a 
prey  to  disease  and  famine.  Some  were  killed 
by  the  Indians  while  returning  from  their  club  at 
evening  ;  some  became  pirates. 

The  colony  decreased  from  four  hundred  and 
ninety  to  sixty  people,  and  at  last  it  was  moved 
and  seconded  that  they  do  now  adjourn.  They 
started  away  from  Jamestown  without  a  tear,  or 
hardly  anything  else,  having  experienced  a  very 
dull  time  there,  funerals  being  the  only  relaxation 
whatever. 

But  moving  down  the  bay  they  met  Lord  Dela- 
ware, the  new  Governor,  with  a  lot  of  Christmas- 
presents  and  groceries.  Jamestown  was  once 
more  saved,  though  property  still  continued  low. 
The  company,  by  the  terms  of  its  new  charter, 
became  a  self-governing  institution,  and  London 
was  only  too  tickled  to  get  out  of  the  responsi- 
bility. It  is  said  that  the  only  genuine  humor  up 


THE   THIRTEEN  ORIGINAL    COLONIES.        41 

to  that  time  heard  in  London  was  spent  on  the 
jays  of  Jamestown  and  the  Virginia  colony. 

Where  is  that  laughter  now?  Where  are  the 
gibes  and  bon-mots  made  at  that  sad  time  ? 

They  are  gone. 

All  over  that  little  republic,  so  begun  in  sorrow 
and  travail,  there  came  in  after-years  the  dimples 
and  the  smiles  of  the  prosperous  child  who  would 
one  day  rise  in  the  lap  of  the  mother-country,  and, 
asserting  its  rights  by  means  of  Patrick  O' Fallen 
Henry  and  others,  place  a  large  and  disagreeable 
fire-cracker  under  the  nose  of  royalty,  that,  bust- 
ing the  awful  stillness,  should  jar  the  empires  of 
earth,  and  blow  the  unblown  noses  of  future 
kings  and  princes.  (This  is  taken  bodily  from  a 
speech  made  by  me  July  4,  1777,  when  I  was 
young. — THE  AUTHOR.) 

Pocahontas  was  married  in  1613.  She  was 
baptized  the  day  before.  Whoever  thought  of 
that  was  a  bright  and  thoughtful  thinker.  She 
stood  the  wear  and  tear  of  civilization  for  three 
years,  and  then  died,  leaving  an  infant  son,  who 
has  since  grown  up. 

The  colony  now  prospered.  All  freemen  had 
the  right  to  vote.  Religious  toleration  was  en- 
joyed first-rate,  and,  there  being  no  negro  slavery, 
Virginia  bade  fair  to  be  the  republic  of  the  conti- 
nent. But  in  1619  the  captain  of  a  Dutch  trad- 
ing-vessel sold  to  the  colonists  twenty  negroes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


The  negroes  were  mostly  married  people,  and  in 
some  instances  children  were  born  to  them.  This 
peculiarity  still  shows  itself  among  the  negroes, 
and  now  all  over  the  South  one  hardly  crosses  a 
county  without  seeing  a  negro  or  a  person  with 
negro  blood  in  his  or  her  veins. 

After  the  death  of  Powhatan,  the  friend  of  the 

English,    an    organized 
attempt  was  made  by 
the  Indians  to  ex- 


NEGROES    STILL    HAVE    FAMILIES. 


terminate  the  white  people  and  charge  more  for 
water  frontage  the  next  time  any  colonists  came. 

March  22,  1622,  was  the  day  set,  and  many  of 
the  Indians  were  eating  at  the  tables  of  those  they 
had  sworn  to  kill.  It  was  a  solemn  moment. 


THE   THIRTEEN  ORIGINAL    COLONIES. 


43 


The  surprise  was  to  take  place  between  the  cold 
beans  and  the  chili  sauce. 

But  a  converted  In- 
dian told  quite  a  num- 
ber, and  as  the  cold 
beans  were  passed, 
the  effect  of  some  ar- 
senic that  had  been 
eaten  with  the  slim- 
neck  clams  began  to 
be  seen,  and  before 
the  beans  had  gone 
half-  way  round  the 
board  the  children  of 
the  forest  were  seen 
to  excuse  themselves, 
and  thus  avoid  dying 
in  the  house. 

Yet  there  were  over 


PREPARING    THE    FEAST. 


three  hundred  and 
fifty  white  people  massacred,  and  there  followed 
another,  reducing  the  colonists  from  four  thousand 
to  two  thousand  five  hundred,  then  a  massacre  of 
five  hundred,  and  so  on,  a  sickening  record  of 
death  and  horror,  even  worse,  before  a  great  na- 
tion could  get  a  foothold  in  this  wild  and  savage 
land  ;  even  a  toe-hold,  as  I  may  say,  in  the  sands 
of  time. 

July   30,    1619,    the   first   sprout   of    Freedom 


44  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

poked  its  head  from  the  soil  of  Jamestown  when 
Governor  Yeardley  stated  that  the  colony  "  should 
have  a  handle  in  governing  itself."  He  then 
called  at  Jamestown  the  first  legislative  body  ever 
assembled  in  America ;  most  of  the  members 
whereof  boarded  at  the  Planters'  House  during 
the  session.  (For  sample  of  legislator  see  pic- 
ture.) This  body  could  pass  laws,  but  they  must 
be  ratified  by  the  company  in  England.  The 
orders  from  London  were  not  binding  unless  rati- 
fied by  this  Colonial  Assembly. 

This  was  a  mutual  arrangement  reminding  one 
of  the  fearful  yet  mutual  apprehension  spoken  of 
by  the  poet  when  he  says, — 

"Jim  Darling  didn't  know  but  his  father  was  dead, 
And  his  father  didn't  know  but  Jim  Darling  was  dead." 

The  colony  now  began  to  prosper  ;  men  held 
their  lands  in  severalty,  and  taxes  were  low.  The 
railroad  had  not  then  brought  in  new  styles  in 
clothing  and  made  people  unhappy  by  creating 
jealousy. 

Settlements  joined  each  other  along  the  James 
for  one  hundred  and  forty  miles,  and  the  colonists 
first  demonstrated  how  easily  they  could  get  along 
without  the  New  York  papers. 

Tobacco  began  to  be  a  very  valuable  crop,  and 
at  one  time  even  the  streets  were  used  for  its 


THE   THIRTEEN   ORIGINAL    COLONIES. 


45 


cultivation.     Tobacco  now  proceeded  to  become  a 
curse  to  the  civilized  world. 

In  1624,  King  James,  fearing  that  the  infant 
colony  would  go  Democratic,  appointed  a  rump 
governor. 

The  oppression  of  the  English  parliament  now 
began  to  be  felt.  The  colonists  were  obliged  to 
ship  their  products  to  England  and  to  use  only 
English  vessels.  The  Assembly,  largely  royalists, 
refused  to  go  out  when  their  terms  of  office  ex- 
pired, paid  themselves  at  the  rate  of  about  thirty- 
six  dollars  per  day  as  money  is  now,  and,  in  fact, 
acted  like  members  of  the  Legislature 
generally. 

In  1676,  one  hundred  years  before  the 
Colonies   declared    themselves   free  and 
independent,  a  rebellion,  under  the  man- 
agement  of    a   bright   young 
attorney  named  Bacon,  visited 
Jamestown    and    burned    the 
American    metropolis,     after 
which  Governor  Berkeley  was 
driven  out.     Bacon  died  just 
as  his  rebellion  was  beginning 
to  pay,   and   the   people  dis- 
persed.    Berkeley  then    took  con- 
trol, and   killed   so  many  rebels  that 
Mrs.  Berkeley  had  to  do  her  own  work, 
and  Berkeley,  who  had  no  one  left  to 


JAMESTOWN    LEGISLATOR. 


46  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

help  him  but  his  friends,  had  to  stack  his  own 
grain  that  fall  and  do  the  chores  at  the  barn. 

Jamestown  is  now  no  more.  It  was  succeeded 
in  1885  by  Jamestown,  North  Dakota,  now  called 
Jimtown,  a  prosperous  place  in  the  rich  farming- 
lands  of  that  State. 

Jamestown  the  first,  the  scene  of  so  many  sor- 
rows and  little  jealousies,  so  many  midnight 
Indian  attacks  and  bilious  attacks  by  day,  became 
a  solemn  ruin,  and  a  few  shattered  tombstones, 
over  which  the  jimson-weed  and  the  wild  vines 
clamber,  show  to  the  curious  traveller  the  place 
where  civilization  first  sought  to  establish  itself 
on  the  James  River,  U.S.A. 


The  author  wishes  to  refer  with  great  gratitude  to  information  con- 
tained in  the  foregoing  chapter  and  obtained  from  the  following  works : 

The  Indian  and  other  Animalcula.  By  N.  K.  Boswell,  Laramie  City, 
Wyoming. 

How  to  Jolly  the  Red  Man  out  of  his  Lands.     By  Ernest  Smith. 

The  Female  Red  Man  and  her  Pure  Life.  By  Johnson  Sides,  Reno, 
Nevada  (P.M.  please  forward  if  out  on  war-path). 

The  Crow  Indian  and  His  Caws.     By  Me. 

Massacre  Etiquette.  By  Wad.  McSwalloper,  82  McDougall  St.,  New 
York. 

Where  is  my  Indian  to  night  ?     By  a  half-bred  lady  of  Winnipeg. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    PLYMOUTH    COLONY. 

IN  the  fall  of  1620  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  Ply- 
mouth during  a  disagreeable  storm,  and, 
noting  the  excellent  opportunity  for  future 
misery,  began  to  erect  a  number  of  rude  cabins. 
This  party  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  two  peo- 
ple of  a  resolute  character  who  wished  to  worship 
God  in  a  more  extemporaneous  manner  than  had 
been  the  custom  in  the  Church  of  England. 

They  found  that  the  Indians  of  Cape  Cod  were 
not  ritualistic,  and  that  they  were  willing  to  dis- 
pose of  inside  lots  at  Plymouth  on  reasonable 
terms,  retaining,  however,  the  right  to  use  the 
lands  for  massacre  purposes  from  time  to  time. 

The  Pilgrims  were  honest,  and  gave  the  Indians 
something  for  their  land  in  almost  every  instance, 

47 


48  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

but  they  put  a  price  upon  it  which  has  made  the 
Indian  ever  since  a  comparatively  poor  man. 

Half  of  this  devoted  band  died  before  spring, 
and  yet  the  idea  of  returning  to  England  did  not 
occur  to  them.  "No,"  they  exclaimed,  "we  will 
not  go  back  to  London  until  we  can  go  first-class, 
if  we  have  to  stay  here  two  hundred  years." 

During  the  winter  they  discovered  why  the 
lands  had  been  sold  to  them  so  low.  The  In- 
dians of  one  tribe  had  died  there  of  a  pestilence 
the  year  before,  and  so  when  the  Pilgrims  began 
to  talk  trade  they  did  not  haggle  over  prices. 

In  the  early  spring,  however,  they  were  sur- 
prised to  hear  the  word  "  Welcome"  proceeding 
from  the  door-mat  of  Samoset,  an  Indian  whose 
chief  was  named  Massasoit.  A  treaty  was  then 
made  for  fifty  years,  Massasoit  taking  "the  same." 

Canonicus  once  sent  to  Governor  Bradford  a 

'  bundle  of  arrows  tied  up  in  a  rattlesnake's  skin. 

The  Governor  put  them  away  in  the  pantry  with 

his  other  curios,  and  sent  Canonicus  a  few  bright 

new  bullets  and  a  little  dose  of  powder.     That 

)  closed  the  correspondence.     In  those  days  there 

were  no  newspapers,  and  most  of  the  fighting  was 

done  without  a  guarantee  or  side  bets. 

Money-matters,  however,  were  rather  panicky 
at  the  time,  and  the  people  were  kept  busy  dig- 
ging clams  to  sustain  life  in  order  to  raise  Indian 
^  corn  enough  to  give  them  sufficient  strength  to 


THE  PLYMOUTH  COLONY.  49 

pull  clams  enough  the  following  winter  to  get  them 
through  till  the  next  corn  crop  should  give  them  '/ 
strength  to  dig  for  clams  again.     Thus  a  trip  to  j. 
London  and  the  Isle  of  Wight  looked  farther  and;; 
farther  away. 

After  four  years  they  numbered  only  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-four,  counting  immigration  and 
all.  The  colony  only  needed,  however,  more  peo- 
ple and  Eastern  capital. 

It  would  be  well  to  pause  here  and  remember 
the  annoyances  connected  with  life  as  a  forefather. 
Possibly  the  reader  has  considered  the  matter 
already.  Imagine  how  nervous  one  may  be 
waiting  in  the  hall  and  watching  with  a  keen 
glance  for  the  approach  of  the  physician  who  is 
to  announce  that  one  is  a  forefather.  The  ama- 
teur forefather  of  1620  must  have  felt  proud  yet 
anxious  about  the  clam-yield  also,  as  each  new 
mouth  opened  on  the  prospect. 

Speaking  of  clams,  it  is  said  by  some  of  the 
forefathers  that  the  Cape  Cod  menu  did  not  go 
beyond  cod-fish  croquettes  until  the  beginning  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  when  pie  was  added  by 
act  of  legislature. 

Clams  are  not  so  restless  if  eaten  without  the 
brisket,  which  is  said  to  lie  hard  on  the  stomach.* 

Salem  and  Charlestown  were  started  by  Gov- 
ernor Endicott,  and  Boston  was  founded  in  1630. 

*  See  Dr.  Dunn's  Family  Physician  and  Horse  Doctor, 
c        d  5 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


To  these  various  towns  the  Puritans 
flocked,  and  even  now  one  may  be 
seen  in  ghostly  garments  on  Thanks- 
giving Eve  flitting  here  and  there 
turning  off  the  gas  in  the  parlor 
while  the  family  are  at  tea,  in  order 
to  cut  down  expenses. 

Plymouth  and  Massachusetts 
Bay  Colonies-  were  united  in 
1692. 

Roger  -Williams,  a  bright 
young  divine,  was  the  first  to 
interfere  with  the  belief  that 
magistrates  had  the  right  to 
punish  Sabbath-breakers,  blas- 
phemers, etc.  He  also  was  the 
first  to  utter  the  idea  that  a 
man's  own  conscience  must  be 
his  own  guide  and  not  that  of 
another. 

Among    the    Puritans    there 
were  several  who  had  enlarged 
consciences,  and  who  de- 
sired to  take  in  extra  work 
for  others  who  had  no 
consciences  and 
were    busy    in 
the  fields.   They 


were     always 


SABBATH-BREAKER    ARRESTER. 


THE   PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


ready  to  give   sixteen    ounces   to  the 

pound,  and  were 
honest,  but  they 
got  very  little 
rest  on  Sunday, 
r/M,,       because    they 
Wr»-    had    to    watch 
the    Sabbath- 
breaker  all  the 
time. 

The    method 
of  punishment  for  some  offences  is  given  here. 

Does  the  man  look  cheerful?     No.     No  one 
looks  cheerful.     Even  the  little  boys  look  sad.    It 

is  said  -that  the  Puritans 
knocked  what 
fun  there  was 


PURITAN    SNORH    ARRESTER. 


METHODS    OF    PUNISHMENT. 


HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 


out  of  the  Indian.     Did  any  one  ever  see  an  In- 
dian smile  since  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  ? 


ffl 


IcL 


H 


un  p'eh 
o 


i  i 


Roger  Williams  was  too 
liberal  to  be  kindly  received  by  the  clergy,  and  so 
he  was  driven  out  of  the  settlement.  Finding 
that  the  Indians  were  less  rigid  and  kept  open  on 
Sundays,  he  took  refuge  among  them  (1636),  and 
before  spring  had  gained  eighteen  pounds  and 
converted  Canonicus,  one  of  the  hardest  cases  in 

New  England  and 
the  first  man  to  sit  up 
till  after  ten  o'clock 
at  night.  Canonicus 
gave  Roger  the  tract 
of  land  on  which  Prov- 
idence now  stands. 

Mrs.  Anne  Hutch- 
inson    gave    the    Pil-f 
grims    trouble    also. 
Having  claimed  some  \ 


THE  PLYMOUTH  COLONY. 


53 


special  revelations  and 
attempted  to  make  a  few 
remarks  regarding  them, 
she  was  banished. 

Banishment,    which 
meant  a  homeless  life  in 
a  wild  land,  with  no  one 
but  the  Indians  to  associate  with,  in 
those  days,  was  especially  annoying 
to  a  good  Christian  woman,  and 
yet  it  had  its  good  points.     It 
offered  a  little  religious  freedom, 
which  could  not  be  had  among 
those  who  wanted  it  so  much 
that  they  braved  the  billow  and 
the  wild  beast,  the  savage,  the 
drouth,  the  flood,  and  the  potato-bug,  to 
obtain  it  before  anybody  else  got  a  chance 
at  it.     Freedom  is  a 
good  thing. 

Twenty  years  later 
the  Quakers  shocked 
every  one  by  think- 
ing  a    few   religious 
thoughts    on   their 
own  hooks.    The  colonists  executed  four 
of    them,    and    before    that   tortured 
them  at  a  great  rate. 

During   dull    times   and   on    rainy 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

days  it  was  a  question  among  the  Puritans  whether 
they  would  banish  an  old  lady,  bore  holes  with  a 
V  red-hot  iron  through  a  Quaker's  tongue,  or  pitch 
^  horse-shoes. 

In  1643  tne  "United  Colonies  of  New  Eng- 
land" was  the  name  of  a  league  formed  by  the 
people  for  protection  against  the  Indians. 

King  Philip's  war  followed. 

Massasoit  was  during  his  lifetime  a  friend  to  the 
poor  whites  of  Plymouth,  as  Powhatan  had  been 
of  those  at  Jamestown,  but  these  two  great  chiefs 
were  succeeded  by  a  low  set  of  Indians,  who 
showed  as  little  refinement  as  one  could  well 
imagine. 

Some  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Pilgrims  at  the 
time  are  depicted  on  the  preceding  pages  by  the 
artist,  also  a  few  they  escaped. 

Looking  over  the  lives  of  our  forefathers  who 
came  from  England,  I  am  not  surprised  that,  with 
all  the  English  people  who  have  recently  come  to 
this  country,  I  have  never  seen  a  forefather. 


CHAPTER  V. 

DRAWBACKS    OF    BEING    A   COLONIST. 

IT  was  at  this  period  in  the  history  of  our 
country  that  the  colonists  found  themselves 
not  only  banished  from  all  civilization,  but 
compelled  to  fight  an  armed  foe  whose  trade  was 
war  and  whose  music  was  the  dying  wail  of  a 
tortured  enemy.  Unhampered  by  the  exhausting 
efforts  of  industry,  the  Indian,  trained  by  centuries 
of  war  upon  adjoining  tribes,  felt  himself  foot- 
loose and  free  to  shoot  the  unprotected  forefather 
from  behind  the  very  stump  fence  his  victim  had 
worked  so  hard  to  erect. 

King  Philip,  a  demonetized  sovereign,  organ- 
ized his  red  troops,  and,  carrying  no  haversacks, 
knapsacks,  or  artillery,  fell  upon  the  colonists  and 
killed  them,  only  to  reappear  at  some  remote  point 
while  the  dead  and  wounded  who  fell  at  the  first 
point  were  being  buried  or  cared  for  by  rude  phy- 
sicians. 

What  an  era  in  the  history  of  a  country  !  Gen- 
tlewomen whose  homes  had  been  in  the  peaceful 
hamlets  of  England  lived  and  died  in  the  face  of 

55 


56  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

a  cruel  foe,  yet  prepared  the  cloth  and  clothing  for 
their  families,  fed  them,  and  taught  them  to  look 
to  God  in  all  times  of  trouble,  to  be  prayerful  in 
their  daily  lives,  yet  vigilant  and  ready  to  deal 
death  to  the  general  enemy.  They  were  the 
mothers  whose  sons  and  grandsons  laid  the  huge 
foundations  of  a  great  nation  and  cemented  them 
with  their  blood. 

At  this  time  there  was  a  line  of  battle  three 

hundred  miles  in  length. 
On  one  side  the  white 
man  went  armed  to  the 
field  or  the  prayer-meet- 
ing, shooting  an  Indian 
on  sight  as  he  would  a 
panther  ;  on  the  other,  a 
foe  whose  wife  did  the 
chores  and  hoed  the  scat- 
tering crops  while  he  made 

PRAYERFUL    YET    VIGILANT.  -i  •  i     • 

war  and  extermination  his 

joy  by  night  and  his  prayer  and  life-long  purpose 
by  day. 

Finally,  however,  the  victory  came  sluggishly  to 
the  brave  and  deserving.  One  thousand  Indians 
were  killed  at  one  pop,  and  their  wigwams  were 
burned.  All  their  furniture  and  curios  were 
burned  in  their  wigwams,  and  some  of  their  val- 
uable dogs  were  holocausted.  King  Philip  was 
shot  by  a  follower  as  he  was  looking  under  the 


DRAWBACKS   OF  BEING  A    COLONIST.         57 


e 


throne  for  something,  and  peace  was  for  the  time 
declared. 

About  1684  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts,  which 
had  dared  to  open  up  a  trade  with  the  West  In- 
dies, using  its  own  vessels  for  that  purpose,  was 
hauled  over  the  coals  by  the  mother-country  for 
violation  of  the  Navigation  Act, 
and  an  officer  sent  over  to  en- 
force the  latter.  The  colonists 
defied  him,  and  when  he  was 
speaking  to  them  publicly  in  a 
tone  of  reprimand,  he  got  an 
ovation  in  the  way  of  eggs  and 
codfish,  both  of  which  had  been 
set  aside  for  that  purpose  when 
the  country  was  new,  and  there- 
fore had  an  air  of  antiquity 
which  cannot  be  successfully 
imitated. 

As  a  result,  the  Colony  was 
made  a  royal  appendage,  and 
Sir  Edmund  Andros,  a  political 
hack  under  James  II.,  was  made 
Governor  of  New  England.  He  reigned  under 
great  difficulties  for  three  years,  and  then  sud- 
denly found  himself  in  jail.  The  jail  was  so 
arranged  that  he  could  not  get  out,  and  so  the 
Puritans  now  quietly  resumed  their  old  form  of 
government. 


AN   OVATION   IN    THE  WAY   OF    EGGS   AND 
CODFISH. 


58          -HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

This  continued  also  for  three  years,  when  Sir 
William  Phipps  became  Governor  under  the 
crown,  with  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  per 
annum  and  house-rent. 

From  this  on  to  the  Revolution,  Massachusetts, 
Maine,  and  Nova  Scotia  became  a  royal  province. 
Nova  Scotia  is  that  way  yet,  and  has  to  go  to 
Boston  for  her  groceries. 

The  year  1692  is  noted  mostly  for  the  Salem 
excitement  regarding  witchcraft.  The  children  of 
Rev.  Mr.  Parris  were  attacked  with  some  peculiar 
disease  which  would  not  yield  to  the  soothing  blis- 
ters and  bleedings  administered  by  the  physicians 
of  the  old  school,  and  so,  not  knowing  exactly 
what  to  do  about  it,  the  doctors  concluded  that 
they  were  bewitched.  Then  it  was,  of  course,  the 


OPENING    OF    THE    WITCH-HUNTING    SEASON. 


DRAWBACKS  OF  BEING  A    COLONIST.          59 

duty  of  the  courts  and  selectmen  to  hunt  up  the 
witches.  This  was  naturally  difficult. 

Fifty-five  persons  were  tortured  and  twenty 
were  hanged  for  being  witches  ;  which  proves  that 
the  people  of  Salem  were  fully  abreast  of  the  In- 
dians in  intelligence,  and  that  their  gospel  privi- 
leges had  not  given  their  charity  and  Christian 
love  such  a  boom  as  they  should  have  done. 

One  can  hardly  be  found  now,  even  in  Salem, 
who  believes  in  witchcraft ;  though  the  Cape  Cod 
people,  it  is  said,  still  spit  on  their  bait.  The 
belief  in  witchcraft  in  those  days  was  not  confined 
by  any  means  to  the  colonists.  Sir  Matthew  Hale 
of  England,  one  of  the  most  enlightened  judges 
of  the  mother-country,  condemned  a  number  of 
people  for  the  offence,  and  is  now  engaged  in 
doing  road-work  on  the  streets  of  the  New  Jeru- 
salem as  a  punishment  for  these  acts  done  while 
on  the  woolsack. 

Blackstone  himself,  one  of  the  dullest  authors 
ever  read  by  the  writer  of  these  lines,  yet  a  skilled 
jurist,  with  a  marvellous  memory  regarding  Jus- 
tinian, said  that,  to  deny  witchcraft  was  to  deny 
revelation. 

"  Be  you  a  witch?"  asked  one  of  the  judges  of 
Massachusetts,  according  to  the  records  now  on 
file  in  the  State-House  at  Boston. 

"  No,  your  honor,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Office;-,"   said  the   court,    taking  a   pinch   of 


6o 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


IRISHMAN   WHO,  WHEN    POOR,  WAS    DOWN   ON 
RICH    PEOPLE. 


snuff,  "  take  her  out  on  the  tennis-grounds  and 
pull  out  her  toe-nails 
with  a  pair  of  hot 
pincers,  and  then 
see  what  she  says." 
It  was  quite  com- 
mon to  examine  lady 
witches  in  the  regu- 
lar court  and  then 
adjourn  to  the  ten- 
nis-court. A  great 
many  were  ducked 
by  order  of  the  court  and  hanged  up  by  the 
thumbs,  in  obedience  to  the  cus- 
toms of  these  people  who  came 
to  America  because  they  were 
persecuted. 

Human  nature  is  the  same 
even  to  this  day.  The  writer 
grew  up  with  an  Irishman  who 
believed  that  when  a  man  got 
wealthy  enough  to  keep  a  car- 
riage and  coachman  he  ought  to 
be  assassinated  and  all  his  goods 
given  to  the  poor.  He  now  hires 
a  coachman  himself,  having  suc- 
ceeded in  New  York  city  as  a 
policeman ;  but  the  man  who 
comes  to  assassinate  him  will 


IRISHMAN   WHO,  WHEN    RICH,  WAS 
PROUD   AND    HAUGHTY. 


DRAWBACKS  OF  BEING  A    COLONIST.          6 1 

find  it  almost  impossible  to  obtain  an  audience 
with  him. 

If  you  wish  to  educate  a  man  to  be  a  successful 
oppressor,  with  a  genius  for  introducing  new  hor- 
rors and  novelties  in  pain,  oppress  him  early  in 
life  and  don't  give  him  any  reason  for  doing  so. 
The  idea  that  <4  God  is  love"  was  not  popular  in 
those  days.  The  early  settlers  were  so  stern  even 
with  their  own  children  that  if  the  Indian  had  not 
given  the  forefather  something  to  attract  his  atten- 
tion, the  boy  crop  would  have  been  very  light. 

Even  now  the  philosopher  is  led  to  ask,  regard- 
ing the  boasted  freedom  of  America,  why  some 
measures  are  not  taken  to  put  large  fly-screens 
over  it. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE    EPISODE    OF   THE    CHARTER   OAK. 

THE  Colonies  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire 
were  so  closely  associated  with  that  of  Mas- 
sachusetts that  their  history  up  to  1820  was 
practically  the  same. 

Shortly  after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  say 
two  years  or  thereabouts,  Gorges  and  Mason  ob- 
tained from  England  the  grant  of  a  large  tract 
lying  between  the  Merrimac  and  Kennebec 
Rivers.  This  patent  was  afterwards  dissolved, 
Mason  taking  what  is  now  New  Hampshire,  and 
Gorges  taking  Maine.  He  afterwards  sold  the 
State  to  Massachusetts  for  six  thousand  dollars. 
The  growth  of  the  State  may  be  noticed  since 
that  time,  for  one  county  cost  more  than  that  last 
November. 

In  1820  Maine  was  separated  from  Massachu- 
setts. Maine  is  noted  for  being  the  easternmost 
State  in  the  Union,  and  has  been  utilized  by  a 
number  of  eminent  men  as  a  birthplace.  White- 
birch  spools  for  thread,  Christmas-trees,  and  tama- 
rack and  spruce-gum  are  found  in  great  abundance. 
62 


THE  EPISODE    OF   THE   CHARTER    OAK.        63 

It  is  the  home  of  an  industrious  and  peace-loving- 
people.  Bar  Harbor  is  a  cool  place  to  go  to  in 
summer-time  and  violate  the  liquor  law  of  the 
State. 


\\\ 

SEDUCTIONS    OF    BAR    HARBOR. 

The  Dutch  were  first  to  claim  Connecticut. 
They  built  a  trading-post  at  Hartford,  where  they 
swapped  bone  collar-buttons  with  the  Indians  for 
beaver-  and  otter-skins.  Traders  from  Plymouth 
who  went  up  the  river  were  threatened  by  the 


64 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


Dutch,    but  they  pressed    on    and   established  a 
post  at  Windsor. 

In  1635,  Jonn  Steele  led  a  company  "  out  west" 
to  Hartford,  and  Thomas  Hooker,  a  clergyman, 
followed  with  his  congregation,  driving  their  stock 
before  them.  Hartford  thus  had  quite  a  boom 
quite  early  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The 
Dutch  were  driven  out  of  the  Connecticut  Valley, 
and  began  to  look  towards  New  York. 

Soon  after  this  the  Pequod  War  broke  out. 
These  Indians  had  hoped  to  form  an  alliance  with 
the  Narragansetts,  but  Roger  Williams  prevented 

this  by  seeing  the  Narra- 
gansett  chief  personally. 
Thus  the  Puritans  had 
coals  of  fire  heaped  on 
their  heads  by  their  gen- 
tle pastor,  until  the  odor 
of  burning  hair  could  be 
detected  as  far  away  as 
New  Haven. 

The  Pequods  were  thus 
compelled  to  fight  alone, 
and  Captain  Mason  by  a  coup 
d'etat  surrounded  their  camp 
before    daylight    and    entered 
the    palisades    with    the     Indian 
picket,  who  cried  out  "  Owanux ! 
Owanux  !"  meaning  "Englishmen, 


PHQUOD    INDIAN    ON    THE    WAK-PATH. 


THE  EPISODE   OF  THE   CHARTER    OAK.       65 


Englishmen."  Mason  and  his  men  killed  these 
Pequods  and  burned  their  lodges  to  the  ground. 
There  has  never  been  a  prosperous  Pequod  lodge 
since.  Those  who  escaped  to  the  forest  were 
shot  down  like  jack-rabbits  as  they  fled,  and  there 
has  been  no  Pequoding  done  since 
that  time. 

The    New    Haven    Colony  was 
founded  in  1638  by  wealthy  church 
members  from  abroad.     They 
took  the  Bible  as  their  stand- 
ard   and    statute. 
They  had  no  other 
law.     Only  church 
members    could 
vote,     which     was 
different  from  the 
arrangements    in 
New  York  City  in 
after-years. 

The  Connecticut 
Colony  had  a  reg- 
ular constitution, 

said  to  have  been  the  first  written  constitution  ever 
adopted  by  the  people,  framed  for  the  people  by 
the  people.  It  was  at  once  prosperous,  and  soon 
bought  out  the  Saybrook  Colony. 

In    1662   a   royal    charter  was   obtained  which 
united  the  two  above  colonies  and  guaranteed  to 

e  6* 


GOVERNOR  ANDROS. 


66  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

the  people  the  rights  agreed  upon  by  them.  It 
amounted  to  a  duly-authenticated  independence. 
A  quarter  of  a  century  afterwards  Governor  An- 
dros,  in  his  other  clothes  and  a  reigning  coat  of 
red  and  gold  trimmings,  marched  into  the  Assem- 
bly and  demanded  this  precious  charter. 

A  long  debate  ensued,  and,  according  to  tradi- 
tion, while  the  members  of  the  Assembly  stood 
around  the  table  taking  a  farewell  look  at  the 
charter,  one  of  the  largest  members  of  the  house 
fell  on  the  governor's  breast  and  wept  so  copiously 
on  his  shirt-frill  that  harsh  words  were  used  by  his 
Excellency  ;  a  general  quarrel  ensued,  the  lights 
went  out,  and  when  they  were  relighted  the  char- 
ter was  gone. 

Captain  Wadsworth  had  taken  it  and  concealed 
it  in  a  hollow  tree,  since  called  the  Charter  Oak. 
After  Andros  was  ejected  from  the  Boston  office, 
the  charter  was  brought  out  again,  and  business 
under  it  was  resumed. 

Important  documents,  however,  should  not  be, 
as  a  general  thing,  secreted  in  trees.  The  author 
once  tried  this  while  young,  and  when  engaged 
to,  or  hoping  to  become  engaged  to,  a  dear  one 
whose  pa  was  a  singularly  coarse  man  and  who 
hated  a  young  man  who  came  as  a  lover  at  his 
daughter's  feet  with  nothing  but  a  good  education 
and  his  great  big  manly  heart.  He  wanted  a  son- 
in-law  with  a  brewery  ;  and  so  he  bribed  the  boys 


THE  EPISODE   OF   THE   CHARTER    OAK.       6? 

of  the  neighborhood  to  break  up  a  secret  corre- 
spondence between  the  two  young  people  and 
bring  the  mail  to  him.  This  was  the  cause  of 
many  a  heart-ache,  and  finally  the  marriage  of 
the  sweet  young  lady  to  a  brewer  who  was  mort- 


NYE  S    CHARTER    OAK. 


gaged  so  deeply  that  he  wandered  off  somewhere 
and  never  returned.  Years  afterwards  the  brew- 
ery needed  repairs,  and  one  of  the  large  vats  was 
found  to  contain  all  of  the  missing  man  that  would 
not  assimilate  with  the  beer, — viz.,  his  watch. 
Quite  a  number  of  people  at  that  time  quit  the 
use  of  beer,  and  the  author  gave  his  hand  in  mar- 


68  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

riage  to  a  wealthy  young  lady  who  was  attracted 
by  his  gallantry  and  fresh  young  beauty. 

Roger  Williams  now  settled  at  Providence 
Plantation,  where  he  was  joined  by  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son,  who  also  believed  that  the  church  and  state 
should  not  be  united,  but  that  the  state  should 
protect  the  church  and  that  neither  should  under- 
take to  boss  the  other.  It  was  also  held  that 
religious  qualifications  should  not  be  required  of 
political  aspirants,  also  that  no  man  should  be 
required  to  whittle  his  soul  into  a  shape  to  fit  the 
religious  auger-hole  of  another. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  Rhode  Island.  She 
desired  at  once  to  join  the  New  England  Colony, 
but  was  refused,  as  she  had  no  charter.  Plymouth 
claimed  also  to  have  jurisdiction  over  Rhode 
Island.  This  was  very  much  like  Plymouth. 

Having  banished  Roger  Williams  and  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  to  be  skinned  by  the  Pequods  and 
Narragansetts  over  at  Narragansett  Pier,  they 
went  on  about  their  business,  flogging  Quakers, 
also  ducking  old  women  who  had  lumbago,  and 
burning  other  women  who  would  not  answer  affirm- 
atively when  asked,  "  Be  you  a  witch?" 

Then  when  Roger  began  to  make  improve- 
ments and  draw  the  attention  of  Eastern  capital 
to  Rhode  Island  and  to  organize  a  State  or  Colony 
with  a  charter,  Plymouth  said,  "  Hold  on,  Roger : 
religiously  we  have  cast  you  out,  to  live  on  wild 


THE  EPISODE   OF  THE   CHARTER    OAK.       69 

strawberries,  clams,  and  Indians,  but  from  a  mer- 
cantile and  political  point  of  view  you  will  please 
notice  that  we  have  a  string  which  you  will  notice 
is  attached  to  your  wages  and  discoveries." 

Afterwards,  however,  Roger  Williams  obtained 
the  necessary  funds  from  admiring  friends  with 
which  to  go  to  England  and  obtain  a  charter 
which  united  the  Colonies  yet  gave  to  all  the  first 


DUCKING    OLD     WOMEN. 


official  right  to  liberty  of  conscience  ever  granted 
in  Europe  or  America.  Prior  to  that  a  man's 
conscience  had  a  brass  collar  on  it  with  the  royal 
arms  engraved  thereon,  and  was  kept  picketed 
out  in  the  king's  grounds.  The  owner  could  go 
and  look  at  it  on  Sundays,  but  he  never  had  the 
use  of  it. 

With  the  advent  of  freedom  of  political  opinion, 
the  individual  use  of  the  conscience  has  become 


70  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

popularized,  and  the  time  is  coming  when  it  will 
grow  to  a  great  size  under  our  wise  institutions 
and  fostering  -skies.  Instead  of  turning  over  our 
consciences  to  the  safety  deposit  company  of  a 
great  political  party  or  religious  organization  and 
taking  the  key  in  our  pocket,  let  us  have  individ- 
ual charge  of  this  useful  little  instrument  and  be 
able  finally  to  answer  for  its  growth  or  decay. 


The  author  wishes  to  extend  his  thanks  for  the  use  of  books  of  refer- 
ence used  in  the  collection  of  the  foregoing  facts;  among  them,  "  How 
to  Pay  Expenses  though  Single,"  by  a  Social  Leper,  "  How  to  Keep 
Well,"  by  Methuselah,  "  Humor  of  Early  Days,"  by  Job,  "  Dangers  of 
the  Deep,' '  by  Noah,  "  General  Peacefulness  and  Repose  of  the  Dead 
Indian,"  by  General  Nelson  A.  Miles,  "  Gulliver's  Travels,"  and  "  Life 
and  Public  Services  of  the  James  Boys." 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    DISCOVERY   OF    NEW   YORK. 

THE  author  will  now  refer  to  the  discovery  of 
the  Hudson  River  and  the  town  of  New  York 
via  Fort  Lee  and  the  12 5th  Street  Ferry. 

New  York  was  afterwards  sold  for  twenty-four 
dollars, — the  whole  island.  When  I  think  of  this 
I  go  into  my  family  gallery,  which  I  also  use  as  a 
swear  room,  and  tell  those  ancestors  of  mine  what 
I  think  of  them.  Where  were  they  when  New 
York  was  sold  for  twenty-four  dollars  ?  Were 
they  having  their  portraits  painted  by  Landseer, 
or  their  deposition  taken  by  Jeffreys,  or  having 
their  Little  Lord  Fauntleroy  clothes  made  ? 

Do  not  encourage  them  to  believe  that  they  will 
escape  me  in  future  years.  Some  of  them  died 
unregenerate,  and  are  now,  I  am  told,  in  a  coun- 
try where  they  may  possibly  be  damned  ;  and  I 
will  attend  to  the  others  personally. 

Twenty-four  dollars  for  New  York  !  Why,  my 
Croton-water  tax  on  one  house  and  lot  with  fifty 
feet  four  and  one-fourth  inches  front  is  fifty-nine 
dollars  and  no  questions  asked.  Why,  you  can't 

get  a  voter  for  that  now. 

72  * 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  NEW   YORK.  73 

Henry — or  Hendrik — Hudson  was  an  English 
navigator,  of  whose  birth  and  early  history  nothing 
is  known  definitely,  hence  his  name  is  never  men- 
tioned in  many  of  the  best  homes  in  New  York. 

In  1607  ne  made  a  voyage  in  search  of  the 
Northwest  Passage.  In  one  of  his  voyages  he 
discovered  Cape  Cod,  and  later  on  the  Hudson 
River. 

This  was  one  hundred  and  seventeen  years 
after  Columbus  discovered  America  ;  which  shows 
that  the  discovering  business  was  not  pushed  as 
it  should  have  been  by  those  who  had  it  in  charge. 

Hudson  went  up  the  river  as  far  as  Albany, 
but,  finding  no  one  there  whom  he  knew,  he 
hastened  back  as  far  as  2OQth  Street  West,  and 
anchored. 

He  discovered  Hudson  Bay  and  Hudson  Strait, 
and  made  other  journeys  by  water,  though  aquat- 
ting  was  then  in  its  infancy.  Afterwards  his  sailors 
became  mutinous,  and  set  Hendrik  and  his  son, 
with  seven  infirm  sailors,  afloat. 

Ah  !    Whom  have  we  here  ?     (See  next  page.) 

It  is  Hendrik  Hudson,  who  discovered  the 
Hudson  River. 

Here  he  has  just  landed  at  the  foot  of  2OQth 
Street,  New  York,  where  he  offered  the  Indians 
liquor,  but  they  refused. 

How  2(X)th  Street  has  changed  ! 

The   artist  has  been  fortunate  in  getting  the 


74 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


expression  of  the  Indians 
in  the  act  of  refusing. 
Mr.  Hudson's  great  rep- 
utation lies  in  the  fact 
that  he  discovered  the ' 
river  which  bears  his 
name  ;  but  the  thinking 
mind  will  at  once  regard 
the  discovery  of  an  In- 
dian who  does  not  drink 
as  far  more  wonderful. 

Some  historians  say 
that  this  especial  delega- 
tion was  swept  away 
afterward  by  a  pestilence, 
whilst  others  comment- 
ing on  the  incident  main- 
tain that  Hudson  lied. 

It  is  the  only  histor- 
ical question  regarding 
America  not  fully  settled 
by  this  book. 

Nothing  more  was 
heard  of  him  till  he 
turned  up  in  a  thinking 
part  in  "Rip  Van  Win- 
kle." 

Many  claims  regarding 
the  discovery  of  various 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  NEW  YORK.  75 

parts  of  the  United  States  had  been  previously 
made.  The  Cabots  had  discovered  Labrador,  the 
Spaniards  the  southern  part  of  the  United  States  ; 
the  Norsemen  had  discovered  Minneapolis,  and 
Columbus  had  discovered  San  Salvador  and  gone 
home  to  meet  a  ninety-day  note  due  in  Palos  for 
the  use  of  the  Pinta,  which  he  had  hired  by  the 
hour. 

But  we  are  speaking  of  the  discovery  of  New 
York. 

About  this  time  a  solitary  horseman  might  have 
been  seen  at  West  2OQth  Street,  clothed  in  a  little 
brief  authority,  and  looking  out  to  the  west  as  he 
petulantly  spoke  in  the  Tammany  dialect,  then  in 
the  language  of  the  blank-verse  Indian.  He  be- 
gan, "Another  day  of  anxiety  has  passed,  and 
yet  we  have  not  been  discovered  !  The  Great 
Spirit  tells  me  in  the  thunder  of  the  surf  and  the 
roaring  cataract  of  the  Harlem  that  within  a  week 
we  will  be  discovered  for  the  first  time." 

As  he  stands  there  aboard  of  his  horse,  one 
sees  that  he  is  a  chief  in  every  respect  and  in 
life's  great  drama  would  naturally  occupy  the 
middle  of  the  stage.  It  was  at  this  moment  that 
Hudson  slipped  down  the  river  from  Albany  past 
Fort  Lee,  and,  dropping  a  nickel  in  the  slot  at 
1 2 5th  Street,  weighed  his  anchor  at  that  place. 
As  soon  as  he  had  landed  and  discovered  the  city, 
he  was  approached  by  the  chief,  who  said,  "We 


76  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

gates.  I  am  one  of  the  committee  to  show  you 
our  little  town.  I  suppose  you  have  a  power  of 
attorney,  of  course,  for  discovering  us?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Hudson.  "  As  Columbus  used  to 
say  when  he  discovered  San  Salvador,  '  I  do  it  by 
the  right  vested  in  me  by  my  sovereigns.'  '  That 
oversizes  my  pile  by  a  sovereign  and  a  half/  says 
one  of  the  natives  ;  and  so,  if  you  have  not  heard 
it,  there  is  a  good  thing  for  one  of  your  dinner- 
speeches  here." 

"Very  good,"  said  the  chief,  as  they  jogged 
down-town  on  a  swift  Sixth  Avenue  elevated  train 
towards  the  wigwams  on  i4th  Street,  and  going  at 
the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour.  "  We  do  not  care 
especially  who  discovers  us,  so  long  as  we  hold 
control  of  the  city  organization.  How  about  that, 
Hank?" 

"That  will  be  satisfactory,"  said  Mr.  Hudson, 
taking  a  package  pf  imported  cheese  and  eating 
it,  so  that  they  could  have  the  car  to  themselves. 

"We  will  take  the  departments,  such  as  Police, 
Street-Cleaning,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  while  you  and 
Columbus  get  your  pictures  on  the  currency  and 
have  your  graves  mussed  up  on  anniversaries. 
We  get  the  two-moment  horses  and  the  country 
chateaux  on  the  Bronx.  Sabe?" 

"That  is,  you  do  not  care  whose  portrait  is  on 
the  currency,"  said  Hudson,  "so  you  get  the  cur- 
rency." 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  NEW   YORK.  77 

Said  the  man,  "That  is  the  sense  of  tne  meet- 
ing." 

Thus  was  New  York  discovered  via  Albany  and 
Fort  Lee,  and  five  minutes  after  the  two  touched 
glasses,  the  brim  of  the  schoppin  and  the  Man- 
hattan cocktail  tinkled  together,  and  New  York 
was  inaugurated. 

Obtaining  a  gentle  and  philanthropical  gentle- 
man who  knew  too  well  the  city  by  gas-light,  they 
saw  the  town  so  thoroughly  that  nearly  every 
building  in  the  morning  wore  a  bright  red  sign 
which  read, — 


BEWARE  OF  PAINT. 


Regarding  the  question  as  to  who  has  the  right 
to  claim  the  priority  of  discovery  of  New  York,  I 
unite  with  one  of  the  ablest  historians  now  living 
in  stating  that  I  do  not  know. 

Here  and  there  throughout  the  work  of  all 
great  historians  who  are  frank  and  honest,  chap- 
ter after  chapter  of  information  like  this  will  burst 
forth  upon  the  eye  of  the  surprised  and  delighted 
reader. 

Society  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the 
blank-verse  Indian  of  America  was  crude.  Hud- 
son's arrival,  of  course,  among  older  citizens  soon 

1* 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


CLUB    LIFE    IN    EARLY    NEW    YORK. 


called  out  those  who  desired  his  acquaint- 
ance, but  he  noticed  that  club  life 
was  not  what  it  has 
since  become,  espe- 
cially Indian  club 
life. 

He  found  a  nation 
whose  regular  job 
was  war  and  whose 
religion  was  the  ever- 
present  prayer  that 
they  might  eat  the  heart  of  their  enemy  plain. 

The  Indian  High  School  and  Young  Ladies' 
Seminary  captured  by  Columbus,  as  shown  in  the 
pictures  of  his  arrival  at  home  and  his  presentation 
to  the  royal  pair  one  hundred  and  seventeen  years 
before  this,  it  is  said,  brought  a  royal  flush  to  the 
face  of  King  Ferdie,  who  had  been  well  brought 
up. 

This  can  be  readily  understood  when  we 
remember  that  the  Indian  wore  at  court  a 
court  plaster,  a  parlor-lamp-shade  in  stormy  wea- 
ther, made  of  lawn  grass,  or  a  surcingle  of  front 
teeth. 

They  were  shown  also  in  all  these  paintings  as 
graceful  and  beautiful  in  figure  ;  but  in  those  days 
when  the  Pocahontas  girls  went  barefooted  till  the 
age  of  eighty-nine  years,  chewed  tobacco,  kept 
Lent  all  winter  and  then  ate  a  brace  of  middle- 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  NEW  YORK. 


79 


aged  men  for  Easter,  the  figure  must  have  been 
affected  by  this  irregularity  of  meals. 

Unless  the  Pocahontas  of  the  present  day  has  , 
fallen  off  sadly  in  her  carriage  and  beauty,  to  be 
saved  from  death  by  her,  as  Smith  was,  and  feel 


THE   INDIAN   GIRL   OF   STORY. 


THE    INDIAN   GIRL   OF    FACT. 


that  she  therefore  had  a  claim  on  him,  must  have  j 
given   one   nervous   prostration,   paresis,   and    in- 
somnia. 

The  Indian  and  the  white  race  never  really 
united  or  amalgamated  outside  of  Canada.  The 
Indian  has  always  held  aloof  from  us,  and  even  as 


8o 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


late  as  Sitting  Bull's  time  that  noted  cavalry  officer 
said  to  the  author  that  the  white  people  who  sim- 
ply came  over  in  the  Mayflower  could  not  marry 
into  his  family  on  that  ground.  He  wanted  to 

know  why  they  had  to  come 
over  in  the  Mayflower. 
"  We  were  here,"  said  the 


BILL    NYE   CONVERSING    WITH    SITTING    BULL. 

aged  warrior,  as  he  stole  a  bacon-rind  which  I 
used  for  lubricating  my  saw,  and  ate  it  thought- 
fully, "  we  were  here  and  helped  Adam  '  round 
up'  and  brand  his  animals.  We  are  an  old  fam- 
ily, and  never  did  manual  labor.  We  are  just  as 
poor  and  proud  and  indolent  as  those  who  are 
of  noble  blood.  We  know  we  are  of  noble  blood 
because  we  have  to  take  sarsaparilla  all  the  time. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  NEW   YORK.  8 1 

We  claim  to   come  by  direct  descent  from  Job, 
of  whom  the  inspired  writer  says, — 

"Old  Job  he  was  a  fine  young  lad, 

Sing  Glory  hallelujah. 

His  heart  was  good,  but  his  blood  was  bad, 
Sing  Glory  hallelujah."  * 


*  This  is  a  stanza  from  the  works  of  Dempster  Winterbottom  Wood- 
worth,  M.D.,  of  Ellsworth,  Pierce  County,  Wisconsin,  author  of  the 
"  Diary  of  Judge  Pierce,"  and  "  Life  and  Times  of  Melancthon  Klingen- 
smith."  The  thanks  of  the  author  are  also  due  to  Baldy  Sowers  for 
a  loaned  copy  of  "  How  to  Keep  up  a  Pleasing  Correspondence  without 
Conveying  Information,"  8vo,  bevelled  boards,  published  by  Public  Printer. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    DUTCH    AT   NEW    AMSTERDAM. 

SOON  after  the  discovery  of  the  Hudson, 
Dutch  ships  began  to  visit  that  region,  to 
traffic  in  furs  with  the  Indians.  Some  huts 
were  erected  by  these  traders  on  Manhattan  Island 
in  1613,  and  a  trading-post  was  established  in 
1615.  Relics  of  these  times  are  frequently  turned 
up  yet  on  Broadway  while  putting  in  new  pipes, 
or  taking  out  old  pipes,  or  repairing  other  pipes, 
or  laying  plans  for  yet  other  pipes,  or  looking  in 
the  earth  to  see  that  the  original  pipes  have  not 
been  taken  away. 

Afterwards  the  West  India  Company  obtained 
a  grant  of  New  Netherland,  and  New  Amster- 
dam was  fairly  started.  In  1626,  Minuit,  the  first 
governor,  arrived,  and,  as  we  have  stated,  pur- 
chased the  entire  city  of  New  York  of  the  Indians 
for  twenty-four  dollars. 

Then  trouble  sprang  up  between  the  Dutch  and 
the  Swedes  on  the  Delaware  over  the  possession 
of  Manhattan,  and  when  the  two  tribes  got  to 
conversing  with  each  other  over  their  rights,  using 
the  mother-tongue  on  both  sides,  it  reminded  one 
82 


84  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

of  the  Chicago  wheat  market  when  business  is 
good.  The  English  on  the  Connecticut  also  saw 
that  Manhattan  was  going  to  boom  as  soon  as  the 
Indians  could  be  got  farther  west,  and  that  prop- 
erty would  be  high  there. 

Peter  Stuyvesant  was  the  last  Dutch  governor 
of  New  York.  He  was  a  relative  of  mine.  He 
disliked  the  English  very  much.  They  annoyed 
him  with  their  democratic  ideas  and  made  his  life 
a  perfect  hell  to  him.  He  would  be  sorry  to  see 
the  way  our  folks  have  since  begun  to  imitate  the 
English.  I  can  almost  see  him  rising  in  his  grave 
to  note  how  the  Stuyvesants  in  full  cry  pursue  the 
affrighted  anise-seed  bag,  or  with  their  coaching 
outfits  go  tooling  along  'cross  country,  stopping 
at  the  inns  on  the  way  and  unlimbering  their  port- 
able bath-tubs  to  check  them  with  the  "  dark." 

Pete,  you  did  well  to  die  early.  You  would 
not  have  been  happy  here  now. 

While  Governor  Stuyvesant  was  in  hot  water 
with  the  English,  the  Swedes,  and  the  Indians,  a 
fleet  anchored  in  the  harbor  and  demanded  the 
surrender  of  the  place  in  the  name  of  the  Duke 
of  York,  who  wished  to  use  it  for  a  game  pre- 
serve. After  a  hot  fight  with  his  council,  some 
of  whom  were  willing  even  then  to  submit  to 
English  rule  and  hoped  that  the  fleet  might  have 
two  or  three  suits  of  tweed  which  by  mistake  were 
a  fit  and  therefore  useless  to  the  owners,  and  that 


THE  DUTCH  AT  NEW  AMSTERDAM.  85 

they  might  succeed  in  swapping  furs  for  these, 
the  governor  yielded,  and  in  1664  New  York 
became  a  British  possession,  named  as  above. 

The  English  governors,  however,  were  not  pop- 
ular. They  were  mostly  political  hacks  who  were 
pests  at  home  and  banished  to  New  York,  where 
the  noise  of  the  streets  soon  drove  them  to  drink. 
For  nine  years  this  sort  of  thing  went  on,  until 
one  day  a  Dutch  fleet  anchored  near  the  Staten 
Island  brewery  and  in  the  evening  took  the 
town. 

However,  in  the  year  following,  peace  was  re- 
stored between  England  and  Holland,  and  New 
Amsterdam  became  New  York  again,  also  subject 
to  the  Tammany  rule. 

Andros  was  governor  for  a  time,  but  was  a  sort 
of  pompous  tomtit,  with  a  short  breath  and  a  large 
aquiline  opinion  of  himself.  He  was  one  of  the 
arrogant  old  pie-plants  whose  growth  was  fostered 
by  the  beetle-bellied  administration  at  home.  He 
went  back  on  board  the  City  of  Rome  one  day, 
and  did  not  return. 

New  York  had  a  gleam  of  hope  for  civil  free- 
dom under  the  rule  of  the  Duke  of  York  and  the 
county  Democracy,  but  when  the  duke  became 
James  II.  he  was  just  like  other  people  who  get  a 
raise  of  salary,  and  refused  to  be  privately  enter- 
tained by  the  self-made  ancestry  of  the  American. 

He  was  proud  and  arrogant  to- a  degree.     He 


86 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


DUKE    OF    YORK. 


forbade  legislation,  and  stopped  his 
paper.  New  York  was  at  this  time 
annexed  to  the  New  England  Col- 
ony, and  began  keeping  the  Sab- 
bath so  vigorously  that  the  angels 
had  great  difficulty  in  getting  at  it. 
Nicholson,  who  was  the  lieuten- 
ant tool  of  iniquity  for  Andros, 
fled  with  him  when  democracy  got 
too  hot  for  them.  Captain  Leisler, 
supported  by  Steve  Brodie  and 
everything  south  of  the  Harlem, 
but  bitterly  opposed  by  the  aris- 
tocracy, who  were  distinguished  by 
their  ability  to  use  new  goods  in  making  their 
children's  clothes,  whereas  the  democracy  had  to 
make  vests  for  the  boys  from  the  cast-off  trou- 
sers of  their  fathers,  governed  the  province  until 
Governor  Sloughter  arrived. 

Sloughter  was  another  imported  Smearkase  in 
official  life,  and  arrested  Leisler  at  the  request 
of  an  aristocrat  who  drove  a  pair  of  bang-tail 
horses  up  and  down  Nassau  Street  on  pleasant 
afternoons  and  was  afterwards  collector  of  the 
port.  Having  arrested  Leisler  for  treason,  the 
governor  was  a  little  timid  about  executing  him, 
for  he  had  never  really  killed  a  man  in  his  life, 
and  he  hated  the  sight  of  blood  ;  so  Leisler' s  ene- 
mies got  the  governor  to  take  dinner  with  them, 


THE  DUTCH  AT  NEW  AMSTERDAM.  87 

and  mixed  his  rum,  so  that  when  he  got  ready 
to  speak,  his  remarks  were  somewhat  heteroge- 
neous, and  before  he  went  home  he  had  signed 
a  warrant  for  Leisler's  immediate  execution. 


GOVERNOR    SLOUGHTER  S    PAINFUL   AWAKENING. 

When  he  awoke  in  the  morning  at  his  beautiful 
home  on  Whitehall  Street,  the  sun  was  gayly 
glinting  the  choppy  waves  of  Buttermilk  Channel, 
and  by  his  watch,  which  had  run  down,  he  saw- 
that  it  was  one  o'clock,  but  whether  it  was  one 
o'clock  A.M.  or  P.M.  he  did  not  know,  nor  whether 
it  was  next  Saturday  or  Tuesday  before  last.  Oh, 
how  he  must  have  felt  I 


88  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

His  room  was  dark,  the  gas  having  gone  out  to 
get  better  air.  He  attempted  to  rise,  but  a  chill, 
a  throb,  a  groan,  and  back  he  lay  hastily  on  the 
bed  just  as  it  was  on  the  point  of  escaping  him. 
Suddenly  a  thought  came  to  him.  It  was  not  a 
great  thought,  but  it  was  such  a  thought  as  comes 
to  those  who  have  been  thoughtless.  He  called 
for  a  blackamoor  slave  from  abroad  who  did 
chores  for  him,  and  ordered  a  bottle  of  cooking 
brandy,  then  some  club  soda  he  had  brought  from 
London  with  him.  Next  he  drank  a  celery-glass 
of  it,  and  after  that  he  felt  better.  He  then  drank 
another. 

"  Keep  out  of  the  way  of  this  bed,  Julius,"  he 
said.  "It  is  coming  around  that  way  again.  Step 
to  one  side,  Julius,  please,  and  let  the  bed  walk 
around  and  stretch  its  legs.  I  never  saw  a  bed 
spread  itself  so,"  he  continued,  seeming  to  enjoy 
his  own  Lancashire  humor.  ''All  night  I  seemed 
to  feel  a  great  pain  creeping  over  me,  Julius,"  he 
said,  hesitatingly,  again  filling  his  celery-glass, 
"but  I  see  now  that  it  was  a  counterpane." 

Eighty  years  after  that,  Sloughter  was  a  corpse. 

We  should  learn  from  this  not  to  be  too  hasty 
in  selecting  our  birthplaces.  Had  he  been  born 
in  America,  he  might  have  been  alive  yet. 

From  this  on  the  struggles  of  the  people  up  to 
the  time  of  the  Revolution  were  enough  to  mortify 
the  reader  almost  to  death.  I  will  not  go  over 


THE  DUTCH  AT  NEW  AMSTERDAM, 


89 


them  again.  It  was  the  history  of  all  the  other 
Colonies  ;  poor,  proud,  with  large  masses  of  chil- 
dren clustering  about,  and  Indians  lurking  in  the 
out-buildings.  The  mother-country  was  negligent, 
and  even  cruel.  Her  political  offscourings  were 
sent  to  rule  the  people.  The  cranberry-crops 
soured  on  the  vines,  and  times  were  very  scarce. 

It  was  during  this  period  that  Captain  William 
Kidd,  a  New  York  ship-master  and  anti-snapper 
from  Mulberry  Street,  was  sent  out  to  overtake 
and  punish  a  few  of  the  innumerable  pirates  who 
then  infested  the  high  seas. 

Studying  first  the  character,  life,  and  public 
services  of  the  immoral  pirate,  and  being  perfectly 
foot-loose,  his  wife  having  eloped  with  her  family 
physician,  he  determined  to  take  a  little 
whirl  at  the  business  himself,  hoping 
thereby  to  escape  the  noise  and  heat 
of  New  York  and  obtain  a 
livelihood  while  life  lasted 
which  would  maintain 
hirn  the  remainder  of 
his  days  unless  death 
overtook  him. 

Dropping  off  at  Bos- 
ton one  day  to  secure  a 
supply  of  tobacco,  he 
was  captured  while 
watching  the  vast  num- 

8* 


NYE  AS  A  BOY  READING  ABOUT  KIDD 


QO  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

her  of  street-cars  on  Washington  Street.  He 
was  taken  to  England,  where  he  was  tried  and 
ultimately  hanged.  His  sudden  and  sickening 
death  did  much  to  discourage  an  American 


CAPTAIN    KIDD     ARRESTED. 


youth  of  great  brilliancy  who  had  up  to  1868  in- 
tended to  be  a  pirate,  but  who,  stumbling  across 
the  "  Life  and  Times  of  Captain  Kidd,  and  his 
Awful  Death,"  changed  his  whole  course  and  be- 
came one  of  the  ablest  historians  of  the  age  in 
which  he  lived. 


THE  DUTCH  AT  NEW  AMSTERDAM.  91 

This  should  teach  us  to  read  the  papers  instead 
of  loaning  them  to  people  who  do  not  subscribe. 


Since  the  above  was  written,  the  account  of  the  death  of  Governor 
Andros  is  flashed  across  the  wires  to  us.  Verbum  sap.  Also  In  hoc  signo 
vinces. 

The  author  wishes  to  express  by  this  means  his  grateful  acknowledg- 
ments to  his  friends  and  the  public  generally  for  the  great  turn-out  and 
general  sympathy  bestowed  upon  his  relative,  the  late  Peter  B.  Stuyvesant, 
on  the  sad  occasion  of  his  funeral,  which  was  said  to  be  one  of  the  best 
attended  and  most  successful  funerals  before  the  war.  Should  any  of  his 
friends  be  caught  in  the  same  fix,  the  author  will  not  only  cheerfully  turn 
out  himself,  but  send  all  hands  from  his  place  that  can  be  spared,  also  a 
six-seated  wagon  and  a  side-bar  buggy. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


SETTLEMENT   OF   THE    MIDDLE    STATES. 


V, 


v  fi? 
s*:  v 


THE  present  State  of 
New  Jersey  was  a 
part  of  New  Neth- 
erland,  and  the  Dutch 
had  a  trading -post  at 
Bergen  as  early  as  1 6 1 8. 
After  New  Netherland 
passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  Dutch,  the  Duke 
of  York  gave  the  land 
lying  between  the  Hud- 
son and  the  Delaware  to 
Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir 
George  Carteret  for 
Christmas. 

The  first  permanent  English  settlement  made 
in  the  State  was  at  Elizabethtown,  named  so  in 
honor  of  Sir  George's  first  wife. 

Berkeley  sold  his  part  to  some  English  Qua- 
kers. This  part  was  called  West  Jersey.  He 
claimed  that  it  was  too  far  from  town.  It  was 

very  hard  for  a  lord  to  clear  up  land,  and  Berkeley 
92 


BERKELEY    IN    NEW   JERSEY. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  MIDDLE  STATES.      93 

/ 

missed  his  evenings  at  the  Savage  Club,  and  his 
nose  yearned  for  a  good  whiff  of  real  old  Rotten 
Row  fog. 

So  many  disputes  arose  regarding  the  title  to 
Jersey  that  the  whole  thing  finally  reverted  to  the 
crown  in  1702.  When  there  was  any  trouble  over 
titles  in  those  days  it  was  always  settled  by  letting 
it  revert  to  the  crown.  It  has  been  some  years  now, 
however,  since  that  has  happened  in  this  country. 

Thirty-six  years  later  New  Jersey  was  set  apart 
as  a  separate  royal  province,  and  became  a  rail- 
road terminus  and  bathing-place. 

Delaware  was  settled  by  the  Swedes  at  Wil- 
mington first,  and  called  New  Sweden.  I  am 
surprised  that  the  Norsemen,  who  it  is  claimed 
made  the  first  and  least  expensive  summer  at 
Newport,  R.  I.,  should  not  have  clung  to  it. 


CHEAPEST    NEWPORT    SEASON. 


94  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

They  could  have  made  a  good  investment,  and 
in  a  few  years  would  have  been  strong  enough  to 
wipe  out  the  Brooklyn  police. 

The  Swedes,  too,  had  a  good  foothold  in  New 
York,  Jersey,  and  Delaware,  also  a  start  in  Penn- 
sylvania. But  the  two  nations  seemed  to  yearn 
for  home,  and  as  soon  as  boats  began  to  run  regu- 
larly to  Stockholm  and  Christiania,  they  returned. 
In  later  years  they  discovered  Minneapolis  and 
Stillwater. 

William  Penn  now  loomed  up  on  the  horizon. 
He  was  an  English  Quaker  who  had  been  ex- 
pelled from  Oxford  and  jugged  in  Cork  also  for 
his  religious  belief.  He  was  the  son  of  Admiral 
Sir  William  Penn,  and  had  a  good  record.  He 
believed  that  elocutionary  prayer  was  unnecessary, 
and  that  the  acoustics  of  heaven  were  such  that 
the  vilest  sinner  with  no  voice-culture  could  be 
heard  in  the  remotest  portion  of  the  gallery. 

The  only  thing  that  has  been  said  against  Penn 
with  any  sort  of  semblance  of  truth  was  that  he 
had  some  influence  with  James  II.  The  Duke  of 
York  also  stood  in  with  Penn,  and  used  to  go 
about  in  England  bailing  William  out  whenever 
he  was  jailed  on  account  of  his  religious  belief. 

Penn  was  quite  a  writer  (see  Appendix).  He 
was  the  author  of  "No  Cross,  No  Crown,"  "  In- 
nocency  with  her  Open  Face,"  and  "The  Great 
Cause  of  Liberty  of  Conscience." 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  MIDDLE  STATES.      95 

From  his  father  he  had  inherited  a  claim  against 
the  government  for  sixteen  thousand  pounds, 
probably  arrears  of  pension.  He  finally  received 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania  as  payment  of  the 
claim.  The  western  boundary  took  in  the  Cliff 
House  and  Seal  Rocks  of  San  Francisco. 

Penn  came  to  America  in  1682  and  bought  his 
land  over  again  from  the  Indians.  It  is  not  strange 
that  he  got  the  best  terms  he  could  out  of  the 
Indians,  but  still  it  is  claimed  that  they  were  satis- 
fied, therefore  he  did  not  cheat  them. 

The  Indian,  as  will  be  noticed  by  reading  these 
pages  thoughtfully,  was  never  a  Napoleon  of 
finance.  He  is  that  way  down  to  the  present  day. 
If  you  watch  him  carefully  and  notice  his  ways, 
you  can  dicker  with  him  to  better  advantage  than 
you  can  with  Russell  Sage. 

Take  the  Indian  just  before  breakfast  after  two 
or  three  nights  of  debauchery,  and  offer  him  a  jug 
of  absinthe  with  a  horned  toad  in  it  for  his  pony  and 
saddle,  and  you  will  get  them.  Even  in  his  more 
sober  .and  thoughtful  moments  you  can  swap  a 
suit  of  red  medicated  flannels  with  him  for  a  farm. 

Penn  gathered  about  him  many  different  kinds 
of  people,  with  various  sorts  and  shades  of  belief. 
Some  were  Free-Will  and  some  were  Hard-Shell, 
some  were  High-Church  and  reminded  one  of  a 
Masonic  Lodge  working  at  32°,  while  others  were 
Low- Church  and  omitted  crossing  themselves  fre- 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


A    FEW   OF    PENN  S    PEOPLE. 


quently  while  putting 
down  a  new  carpet  in 
the  chancel. 

But  he  was  too  well 
known  at  court,  and 
suspected 
of  knowl- 
edge of 
and  par- 
ticipation 
in  some  of 
the  ques- 
tionable 
acts  of 

King  James,  so  that  after  the  latter' s  dethrone- 
ment, and  an  intimation  that  Penn  had  communi- 
cated with  the  exiled  monarch,  Penn  was  deprived 
of  his  title  to  Pennsylvania,  for  which  he  had 
twice  paid. 

Penn  was  a  constant  sufferer  at  the  hands  of 
his  associates,  who  sought  to  injure  him  in  every 
.way.  He  rounded  out  a  life  of  suffering  by 
marrying  the  second  time  in  1695. 

In  1708  he  was  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy, 
owing  to  the  villany  and  mismanagement  of  his 
agent,  and  was  thrown  into  Fleet  Street  Prison, 
a  jail  in  which  he  had  never  before  been  confined. 
His  health  gave  way  afterwards,  and  this  remark- 
able man  died  July  30,  1718. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  MIDDLE  STATES.      97 

Philadelphia  was  founded  in  1683  and  work 
begun  on  a  beautiful  building  known  as  the  City 
Hall.  Work  has  steadily  progressed  on  this 
building  from  time  to  time  since  then,  and  at  this 
writing  it  is  so  near  completion  as  to  give  promise 
of  being  one  of  the  most  perfect  architectural  jobs 
ever  done  by  the  hand  of  man. 

In  two  years  Philadelphia  had  sprung  from  a 
wilderness,  where  the  rank  thistle  nodded  in  the 
wind,  to  a  town  of  over  two  thousand  people, 
exclusive  of  Indians  not  taxed.  In  three  years 
it  had  gained  more  than  New  York  had  in  fifty 
years.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  people 
who  came  to  Philadelphia  had  nothing  to  fear  but 
the  Indians,  while  settlers  in  New  York  had  not 
only  the  Indians  to  defend  themselves  against, 
but  the  police  also. 

Penn  and  his  followers  established  the  great 
law  that  no  one  who  believed  in  Almighty  God 
should  be  molested  in  his  religious  belief.  Even 
the  Indians  liked  Penn,  and  when  the  nights  were 
cold  they  would  come  and  crawl  into  his  bed  and 
sleep  with  him  all  night  and  not  kill  him  at  all. 
The  Great  Chief  of  the  Tribes,  even,  did  not  feel 
above  this,  and  the  two  used  frequently  to  lie  and 
talk  for  hours,  Penn  doing  the  talking  and  the 
chief  doing  the  lying. 

It  is  said  that,  with  all  the  Indian  massacres  and 
long  wars  between  the  red  men  and  the  white,  no 

E        g  9 


98 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


drop  of  Quaker  blood  was  ever  shed.  I  quote 
this  from  an  historian  who  is  much  older  than  I, 
and  with  whom  I  do  not  wish  to  have  any  contro- 
versy. 

After  Penn's  death  his  heirs  ran  the  Colony  up 
to  1779,  when  they  disposed  of  it  for  five  hundred 


PENN    AND    THE   BIG   CHIEF. 


thousand  dollars  or  thereabouts,   and  the  State 
became  the  proprietor. 

The  seventeenth  century  must  have  been  a  very 
disagreeable  period  for  people  who  professed  re- 
ligion, for  America  from  Newfoundland  to  Florida 
was  dotted  with  little  settlements  almost  entirely 
made  up  of  people  who  had  escaped  from  England 
to  secure  religious  freedom  at  the  risk  of  their 
lives. 


SETTLEMENT  OF   THE  MIDDLE  STATES.      99 

In  1634  the  first  settlement  was  made  by  young 
Lord  Baltimore,  whose  people,  the  Catholics,  were 
fleeing  from  England  to  obtain  freedom  to  worship 
God  as  they  believed  to  be  right.  Thus  the  Cath- 
olics were  added  to  the  list  of  religious  refugees, 
— viz.,  the  Huguenots,  the  Puritans,  the  Walloons, 
the  Quakers,  the  Presbyterians,  the  Whigs,  and 
the  Menthol  Healers. 

Terra  Mariae,  or  Maryland,  was  granted  to  Lord 
Baltimore,  as  the  successor  of  his  father,  who  had 
begun  before  his  death  the  movement  for  settling 
his  people  in  America.  The  charter  gave  to  all 
freemen  a  voice  in  making  the  laws.  Among  the 
first  laws  passed  was  one  giving  to  every  human 
being  upon  payment  of  poll-tax  the  right  to  wor- 
ship freely  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own 
conscience.  America  thus  became  the  refuge  for 
those  who  had  any  peculiarity  of  religious  belief, 
until  to-day  no  doubt  more  varieties  of  religion 
may  be  found  here  than  almost  anywhere  else  in 
the  world. 

In  1635  the  Virginia  Colony  and  Lord  Baltimore 
had  some  words  over  the  boundaries  between  the 
Jamestown  and  Maryland  Colonies.  Clayborne 
was  the  Jamestown  man  who  made  the  most 
trouble.  He  had  started  a  couple  of  town  sites 
on  the  Maryland  tract,  plotted  them,  and  sold  lots 
to  Yorkshire  tenderfeet,  and  so  when  Lord  Balti- 
more claimed  the  lands  Clayborne  attacked  him, 


100         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

and  there  was  a  running  skirmish  for  several 
years,  till  at  last  the  Rebellion  collapsed  in  1645 
and  Clayborne  fled. 

The  Protestants  now  held  the  best  hand,  and 
outvoted  the  Catholics,  so  up  to  1691  there  was 
a  never-dying  fight  between  the  two,  which  must 
have  been  entertaining  to  the  unregenerate  out- 
sider who  was  taxed  to  pay  for  a  double  set  of 
legislators.  This  fight  between  the  Catholics  and 
Protestants  shows  that  intolerance  is  not  confined 
to  a  monarchy. 

In  1715  the  fourth  Lord  Baltimore  recovered 
the  government  by  the  aid  of  the  police,  and 
religious  toleration  was  restored.  Maryland  re- 
mained under  this  system  of  government  until 
the  Revolution,  which  will  be  referred  to  later 
on  in  the  most  thrilling  set  of  original  pictures 
and  word-paintings  that  the  reader  has  ever  met 
with. 

QUESTIONS   FOR   EXAMINATION. 

Q.  Who  was  William  Penn  ? 
A.  He  founded  Pennsylvania. 
Q.  Was  he  a  great  fighter? 

A.  No.  He  was  a  peaceable  man,  and  did  not  believe  in  killing  men 
or  fighting. 

Q.  Would  he  have  fought  for  a  purse  of  forty  thousand  dollars? 

A.  No.     He  could  do  better  buying  coal  lands  of  the  Indians. 

Q.  What  is  religious  freedom  ? 

A.  It  is  the  art  of  giving  intolerance  a  little  more  room. 

Q.  Who  was  Lord  Baltimore  ? 

A.  See  foregoing  chapter. 


SETTLEMENT  OF   THE  MIDDLE  STATES.     IOI 

Q.  What  do  you  understand  by  rebellion  ? 

A.  It  is  an  unsuccessful  attempt  by  armed  subjects  to  overcome  the 
parent  government. 

Q,  Is  it  right  or  wrong  ? 

A.  I  do  not  know,  but  will  go  and  inquire. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE    EARLY   ARISTOCRACY. 

|  ORD  CLARENDON  and  several  other  noble- 

1  j     men  in  1663   obtained  from   Charles  II.  a 

grant  of  lands  lying  south  of  Virginia  which 

they  called  Carolina  in  honor  of  the  king,  whose 

name  was  not  really  Carolina.     Possibly  that  was 

his  middle  name,  however,  or  his  name  in  Latin. 

The  Albemarle  Colony  was  first  on  the  ground. 
Then  there  was  a  Carteret  Colony  in  1670.  They 
"  removed  the  ancient  groves  covered  with  yellow 
jessamine"  on  the  Ashley,  and  began  to  build  on 
the  present  site  of  Charleston. 

The  historian  remarks  that  the  growth  of  this 
Colony  was  rapid  from  the  first.  The  Dutch,  dis- 
satisfied with  the  way  matters  were  conducted  in 
New  York,  and  worn  out  when  shopping  by  the 
ennui  and  impudence  of  the  salesladies,  came  to 
Charleston  in  large  numbers,  and  the  Huguenots 
in  Charleston  found  a  hearty  Southern  welcome, 
and  did  their  trading  there  altogether. 

We  now  pass  on  to  speak  of  the  Grand  Model 
which  was  set  up  as  a  five-cent  aristocracy  by 
Lord  Shaftesbury  and  the  great  philosopher  John 


102 


THE  EARLY  ARISTOCRACY. 


103 


Locke.  The  canebrakes  and  swamps  of  the  wild 
and  snake-infested  jungles  of  the  wilderness  were 
to  be  divided  into  vast  estates,  over  which  were 
proprietors  with  hereditary  titles  and  outing  flan- 
nels. 

This  scheme  recognized  no  rights  of  self-gov- 
ernment whatever,  and  denied  the  very  freedom 


ARISTOCRACY    SNUBBED. 


which  the  people  came  there  in  search  of.  So 
there  were  murmurings  among  those  people  who 
had  not  brought  their  finger-bowls  and  equerries 
with  them. 

In  short,  aristocracy  did  not  do  well  on  this  soil. 
Baronial  castles,  with  hot  and  cold  water  in  them, 
were  often  neglected,  because  the  colonists  would 
not  forsake  their  own  lands  to  the  thistle  and  blue- 


104         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

nosed  brier  in  order  to  come  and  cook  victuals  for 
the  baronial  castles  or  sweep  out  the  baronial 
halls  and  wax  the  baronial  floors  for  a  journey- 
man juke  who  ate  custard  pie  with  a  knife  and 
drank  tea  from  his  saucer  through  a  King  Charles 
moustache. 

Thus  the  aristocracy  was  forced  to  close  its 
doors,  and  the  arms  of  Lord  Shaftesbury  were  so 
humiliated  that  he  could  no  longer  put  up  his 
dukes  (see  Appendix). 

There  had  also  been  a  great  deal  of  friction 
between  the  Albemarle  or  Carteret  and  the 
Charleston  set,  the  former  being  from  Virginia, 
while  the  latter  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  little 
given  to  kindergarten  aristocracy  and  ofttimes 
tripped  up  on  their  parade  swords  while  at  the 
plough.  Of  course  outside  of  this  were  the  ple- 
beian people,  or  copperas-culottes,  who  did  the 
work  ;  but  Lord  Shaftesbury  for  some  time,  as  we 
have  seen,  lived  in  a  baronial  shed  and  had  his 
arms  worked  on  the  left  breast  of  his  nighty. 

So  these  two  Colonies  finally  became  separate 
States  in  the  Union,  though  there  is  yet  something 
of  the  same  feeling  between  the  people.  Wealthy 
people  come  to  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina 
from  South  Carolina  for  the  cool  summer  breezes 
of  the  Old  North  State,  and  have  to  pay  two  dol- 
lars per  breeze  even  up  to  the  past  summer. 

Thus  there  was  constant  irritation  and  disgust 


THE  EARLY  ARISTOCRACY. 


105 


up  to  1729  at  least,  regarding  taxes,  rents,  and 
rights,  until,  as  the  historian  says,  "the  discour- 
aged Proprietors  ceded  their  rights  to  the  crown." 
It  will  be  noticed  that  the  crown  was  well  ceded 
by  this  time,  and  the  poet's  remark  seems  at  this 


TWO    DOLLARS    PER    BREEZE. 


time  far  grander  and  more  apropos  than  any  lan- 
guage of  the  writer  could  be :  so  it  is  given  here, 
— viz.,  "  Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  seedy 
crown."  (See  Appendix.) 

The  year  of  Washington's  birth,  viz.,  1732,  wit- 
nessed the  birth  of  the  baby  colony  of  Georgia. 
James  Oglethorpe,  a  kind-hearted  man,  with  a  wig 


\ 


106          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

that  fooled  more   than   one    poor 
child  of  the  forest,   conceived  the 
idea    of    founding    a    refuge    for 
Englishmen  who  could  not  pay  up.     The 
laws  were  very  arbitrary  then,  and  harsh 
to  a  degree.     Many  were  imprisoned  then 
in  England  for  debt,  but  those  who  visit 
London  now  will    notice  that  they 
are  at  liberty. 

Oglethorpe  was  an  officer  and 
a  gentleman,  and  this  scheme 
showed  his  generous  na- 
ture and  philanthropic  dis- 
position. George  II. 
granted  him  in  trust 
for  the  poor  a  tract  of 
land  called,  in  honor 
of  the  king,  Georgie,  which 
has  recently  been  changed 
to  Georgia.  The  enterprise 
prospered  remarkably,  and 
generous  and  charitable  peo- 
ple aided  it  in  every  possible 
way.  People  who  had  not 
been  able  for  years  to  pay  their  debts  came  to 
Georgia  and  bought  large  tracts  of  land  or  began 
merchandising  with  the  Indians.  Thousands  of 
acres  of  rich  cotton-lands  were  exchanged  by  the 
Indians  for  orders  on  the  store,  they  giving  war- 


OGLETHORPE'S  WIG. 


THE  EARLY  ARISTOCRACY. 


107 


NOT    PAID    THEIR    DEBTS    FOR    YEARS. 


ranty  deeds  to  same,  reserving  only  the  rights  of 
piscary  and  massacre. 

Oglethorpe  got  along  with  the  Indians  first-rate, 
and  won  their  friendship.  One  great  chief,  having 
received  a  present  from  Oglethorpe  consisting  of 
a  manicure  set,  on  the  following  Christmas  gave 
Oglethorpe  a  beautiful  buffalo  robe,  on  the  inside 
of  which  were  painted  an  eagle  and  a  portable 
bath-tub,  signifying,  as  the  chief  stated,  that  the 
buffalo  was  the  emblem  of  strength,  the  eagle  of 
swiftness,  and  the  bath-tub  the  advertisement  of 
cleanliness.  "Thus,"  said  the  chief,  "the  English 
are  strong  as  the  buffalo,  swift  as  the  eagle,  and 
love  to  convey  the  idea  that  they  are  just  about 


io8 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


THE   MOSQUITOES    LIKED   THE   COSTUME. 


to  take  a  bath  when  you  came 
and  interrupted  them." 

The  Moravians  also  came  to 
Georgia,  and  the  Scotch  High- 
landers. On  the  arrival  of  the 
latter,  the  Georgia  mosquitoes 
held  a  mass  meeting,  at  which 
speeches  were  made,  and  songs 
sung,  and  resolutions  adopted 
making  the  Highland  uniform 
the  approved  costume  for  the 
entire  coast  during  summer. 

George  Whitefield  the  elo- 
quent, who  often  addressed  audiences  (even  in 
those  days,  when  advertising  was  still  in  its  in- 
fancy and  the  advance  agent  was  unheard  of) 
of  from  five  thousand  to  forty  thousand  people, 
founded  an  orphan  asylum.  One  audience  con- 
sisted of  sixty  thousand  people.  The  money  from 
this  work  all  went  to  help  and  sustain  the  orphan 
asylum.  While  reading  of  him  we  are  reminded 
of  our  own  Dr.  Talmage,  who  is  said  to  be  the 
wealthiest  apostle  on  the  road. 

The  trustees  of  Georgia  limited  the  size  of  a 
man's  farm,  did  not  allow  women  to  inherit  land, 
and  forbade  the  importation  of  rum  or  of  slaves. 
Several  of  these  rules  were  afterwards  altered,  so 
that  as  late  as  1893  at  least  a  gentleman  from 
Washington,  D.C.,  well  known  for  his  truth  and 


THE  EARL  Y  ARISTOCRA  CY.  1 09 

honesty,  saw  rum  inside  the  State  twice,  though 
Bourbon  whiskey  was  preferred.  Slaves  also  were 
found  inside  the  State,  and  the  negro  is  seen  there 
even  now  ;  but  the  popularity  of  a  negro  baby  is 
nothing  now  to  what  it  was  at  the  time  when  this 
class  of  goods  went  up  to  the  top  notch. 

Need  I  add  that  after  a  while  the  people  be- 
came dissatisfied  with  these  rules  and  finally  the 
whole  matter  was  ceded  to  the  crown  ?  From 
this  time  on  Georgia  remained  a  royal  province 
up  to  the  Revolution.  Since  that  very  little  has 
been  said  about  ceding  it  to  the  crown. 

North  Carolina  also  remained  an  English  colony 
up  to  the  same  period,  and,  though  one  of  the 
original  thirteen  Colonies,  is  still  far  more  sparsely 
settled  than  some  of  the  Western  States. 

Virginia  Dare  was  the  first  white  child  born  in 
America.  She  selected  Roanoke,  now  in  North 
Carolina,  in  August,  1587,  as  her  birthplace. 
She  was  a  grand-daughter  of  the  Governor,  John 
White.  Her  fate,  like  that  of  the  rest  of  the 
colony,  is  unknown  to  this  day. 


The  author  begs  leave  to  express  his  thanks  here  for  the  valuable  aid 
furnished  him  by  the  following  works,— viz. :  "  The  Horse  and  his  Dis- 
eases," by  Mr.  Astor;  "Life  and  Times  of  John  Oglethorpe,"  by  Elias 
G.  Merritt;  "How  to  Make  the  Garden  Pay,"  by  Peter  Henderson; 
"Over  the  Purple  Hills,"  by  Mrs.  Churchill,  of  Denver,  Colorado,  and 
"  He  Played  on  the  Harp  of  a  Thousand  Strings,  and  the  Spirits  of  Just 
Men  Made  Perfect,"  by  S.  P.  Avery. 


10 


CHAPTER    XL 

INTERCOLONIAL    AND    INDIAN    WARS. 

INTERCOLONIAL  and  Indian  wars  furnished 
excitement  now  from  1 689  into  the  early  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  War  broke  out 
in  Europe  between  the  French  and  English,  and 
the  Colonies  had  to  take  sides,  as  did  also  the 
Indians. 

Canadians  and  Indians  would  come  down  into 
York  State  or  New  England,  burn  a  town,  toma- 
hawk quite  a  number  of  people,  then  go  back  on 
snow-shoes,  having  entered  the  town  on  rubbers, 
like  a  decayed  show  with  no  printing. 

There  was  an  attack  on  Haverhill  in  March, 
1697,  and  a  Mr.  Dustin  was  at  work  in  the  field. 
He  ran  to  his  house  and  got  his  seven  children 
ahead  of  him,  while  with  his  gun  he  protected 
their  rear  till  he  got  them  away  safely.  Mrs. 
Dustin,  however,  who  ran  back  into  the  house  to 
remove  a  pie  from  the  oven  as  she  feared  it  was 
burning,  was  captured,  and,  with  a  boy  of  the 
neighborhood,  taken  to  an  island  in  the  Merrima«c, 
where  the  Indians  camped.  At  night  she  woke 
the  boy,  told  him  how  to  hit  an  Indian  with  a  toma- 


IIO 


INTERCOLONIAL  AND   INDIAN  WARS.        Ill 

hawk  so  that  "the  subsequent  proceedings  would 
interest  him  no  more,"  and  that  evening  the  two 
stole  forth  while  the  ten  Indians  slept,  knocked  in 
their  thinks,  scalped  them  to  prove  their  story, 
and  passed  on  to  safety.  Mrs.  Dustin  kept  those 
scalps  for  many  years,  showing  them  to  her  friends 
to  amuse  them. 

King  William's  War  lasted  eight  years.  Queen 
Anne's  War  lasted  from  1 702  to  1713.  The  brunt 
of  this  war  fell  on  New  England.  Our  forefathers 
had  to  live  in  block-houses,  with  barbed-wire  fences 
around  them,  and  carry  their  guns  with  them  all 
the  time.  From  planting  the  Indian  with  a  shot- 
gun, they  soon  got  to  planting  their  corn  with  the 
same  agricultural  instrument  in  the  stony  soil. 

The  French  and  Spanish  tried  to  take  Charles- 
ton in  1706,  but  were  repulsed  with  great  loss, 
consisting  principally  of  time  which  they  might 
have  employed  in  raising  frogs'  legs  and  tanta- 
lizing a  bull  at  so  much  per  tant. 

This  war  lasted  eleven  years,  including  stops, 
and  was  ended  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  (pro- 
nounced you-trecked) . 

After  this,  what  was  called  the  Spanish  War 
continued  between  England  and  Spain  for  some 
time.  An  attempt  to  capture  Georgia  was  made, 
and  a  garrison  established  itself  there,  with  good 
prospects  of  taking  in  the  State  under  Spanish 
rule,  but  our  able  friend  Oglethorpe,  the  Henry 


112          HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 


W.  Grady  of  his  time,  managed  to 
accidentally  mislay  a  letter  which  fell 
into  the  enemy's  hands,  the  contents 
of  which  showed  that  enormous  re- 
inforcements were  expected  at  any 
moment.  This  was  swallowed  com- 
fortably by  the  commander,  who  blew 
up  his  impregnable  works,  changed  the 
address  of  his  Atlanta  Constitution,  and 
sailed  for  home. 

Oglethorpe  wore  a  wig,  but  was 
otherwise  one  of  our  greatest  minds. 
It  is  said  that  anybody  at  a  distance 
of  two  miles  on  a  clear  day  could 
readily  distinguish  that  it  was  a  wig, 
and  yet  he  died  believing  that  no  one 
had  ever  probed  his  great  mystery  and 
that  his  wig  would  rise  with  him  at  the 
playing  of  the  last  trump. 

King  George's  War,  which  extended 
over  four  years,  succeeded,  but  did  not 
amount  to  anything  except  the  capture  of  Cape 
Breton  by  English  and   Colonial   troops.      Cape 
Breton  was  called  the  Gibraltar  of  America  ;  but 
a  Yankee  farmer  who  has  raised  flax  on  an  upright 
farm   for  twenty  years  does   not  mind  scaling  a 
couple  of  Gibraltars  before  breakfast ;  so,  without 
)  any  West  Point  knowledge  regarding  engineering, 
\  they  walked  up  the  hill,  and  those  who  were  alive 


BELIEVING    HIS   WIG   WOULD 
RISE  WITH    HIM. 


INTERCOLONIAL  AND   INDIAN  WARS.        113 

when  they  got  to  the  top  took  it.  It  was  no 
Balaklava  business  and  no  dumb  animal  show, 
but  simply  revealed  the  fact  that  brave  men  fight- 
ing for  their  eight-dollar  homes  and  a  mass  of 
children  are  disagreeable  people  to  meet  on  the 
battle-field. 

The  French  and  Indian  War  lasted  nine  years, 
— viz.,  from  1754  to  1763.  From  Quebec  to  New 
Orleans  the  French  owned  the  land,  and  mixed 
up  a  good  deal  socially  with  the  Indians,  so  that 
the  slender  settlement  along  the  coast  had  arrayed 
against  it  this  vast  line  of  northern  and  western 
forts,  and  the  Indians,  who  were  mostly  friendly 
with  the  French,  united  with  them  in  several  in- 
stances and  showed  them  some  new  styles  of 
barbarism  which  up  to  that  time  they  had  never 
known  about. 

The  half-breed  is  always  half  French  and  half 
Indian. 

The  English  owned  all  lands  lying  on  one  side 
of  the  Ohio,  the  French  on  the  other,  which  led  a 
great  chief  to  make  a  P.  P.  C.  call  on  Governor 
Dinwiddie,  and  during  the  conversation  to  inquire 
with  some  naivete  where  the  Indian  came  in.  No 
answer  was  ever  received. 

We  pause  here  to  ask  the  question,  Why  did 
the  pale-face  usurp  the  lands  of  the  Indians  with- 
out remuneration  ?  It  was  because  the  Indian  was 
not  orthodox.  He  may  have  been  lazy  from  a 

h  10* 


114 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Puritanical    stand-point,   and   he    may  also    have 
/  hunted  on  the  twenty-seventh  Sunday  after  Eas- 
\  ter ;  but  still  was  it  not  right  that  he  should  have 
(v  received  a  dollar  or  two  per  county  for  the  United 
States  ?     No  one  would  have  felt  it,  and  possibly 
it  might  have  saved  the  lives  of  innocent  people. 

Verbum  sap.,  however,  comes  in  here  with 
peculiar  appropriateness,  and  the  massive-browed 
historian  passes  on. 

The  French  had  three  forts  along  in  the  Middle 
States,  as  they  are  now  called,  and  Western  Penn- 
sylvania ;  and  George  Washington,  of  whom  more 
will  be  said  in  the  twelfth  chapter,  was  sent  to  ask 
the  French  to  remove  these  forts.  He  started  at 
once. 

The  commanders  were  some  of  them  arrogant, 
but  the  general,  St.  Pierre, 
treated    him  with   great   re- 
^ct,  refusing,  however, 
yield  the  ground  dis- 
covered by  La  Salle 
and  Marquette.    The 
author    had    the 
pleasure    of   be- 
ing   arrested    in 
Paris     in     1889, 
and  he  feels  of  a 
truth,  as  he  often 
does,   that  there 


PLEASURE   OF   BEING   ARRESTED   IN   PARIS 


INTERCOLONIAL  AND  INDIAN  WARS.       115 


can  be  no  more  polite  people  in  the  world  than 
the  French.  Arrested  under  all  circumstances 
and  in  many  lands,  the  author  can  place  his  hand 
on  his  heart  and  say  that  he  would  go  hundreds 
of  miles  to  be  arrested  by  a  John  Darm. 

Washington  returned  four  hundred  miles 
through  every  kind  of  danger,  including  a  lunch 
at  Altoona,  where  he  stopped  twenty  minutes. 

The  following  spring  Washington  was  sent 
under  General  Fry  to  drive  out  the  French,  who 
had  started  farming  at  Pittsburg.  Fry  died,  and 
Washington  took  command.  He 
liked  it  very  much.  After  that  Wash- 
ington took  command  whenever  he 
could,  and  soon  rose  to  be  a 
great  man. 

The  first  expedition  against 
Fort  Duquesne  (pronounced 
du-kane)  was  commanded  by 
General  Braddock,  whose  por- 
trait we  are  able  to  give,  show- 
ing him  at  the  time  he  did  not 
take  Washington's  advice  in 
the  Duquesne  matter.  Later 
we  show  him  as  he  appeared 
after  he  had  abandoned  his 
original  plans  and  immediately 
after  not  taking  Washington's 
advice. 


GENERAL  BRADDOCK  SCORNING 
WASHINGTON'S  ADVICE. 


Il6         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

"The  Indians,"  said  Braddock,  "may  frighten 
Colonial  troops,  but  they  can  make  no  impression 
on  the  king's  regulars.  We  are  alike  impervious 
to  fun  or  fear." 

Braddock  thought  of  fighting  the  Indians  by 
manoeuvring  in  large  bodies,  but  the  first  body  to 


GENERAL    BRADDOCK    AFTER    SCORNING    WASHINGTON'S   ADVICE. 

be  manoeuvred  was  that  of  General  Braddock, 
who  perished  in  about  a  minute. 

We  give  the  reader,  above,  an  idea  of  Brad- 
dock's  soldierly  bearing  after  he  had  been  ma- 
noeuvring a  few  times. 

It  was  then  that  Washington  took  command,  as 
was  his  custom,  and  began  to  fight  the  Indians 
and  French  as  one  would  hunt  varmints  in  Vir- 
ginia. 


INTERCOLONIAL  AND  INDIAN  WARS.        \\7 

Braddock's  men  fired  by  platoons  into 'the  trees 
and  tore  a  few  holes  in  the  State  line,  but  when 
most  of  the  Colonial  troops  were  dead  the  regu- 
lars presented  their  tournures  to  the  foe  and  fled 
as  far  as  Philadelphia,  where  they  each  took  a  bath 
and  had  some  laundry-work  done. 

General  Forbes  took  command  of  the  second 
expedition.  He  spent  most  of  his  time  building 
roads. 

Time  passed  on,  and  Forbes  built  viaducts, 
conduits,  culverts,  and  rustic  bridges,  till  it  was 
November,  and  they  were  yet  fifty  miles  from  the 
fort.  He  then  decided  to  abandon  the  expedition, 
on  account  of  the  cold,  and  also  fearing  that  he 
had  not  made  all  of  his  bridges  wide  enough  so 
that  he  could  take  the  captured  fort  home  with 
him. 

Washington,  however,  though  only  an  addy- 
kong  of  General  Forbes,  decided  to  take  com- 
mand. His  mother  had  said  to  him  over  and 
over,  "  George,  in  an  emergency  always  take 
command."  He  done  so,  as  General  Rusk  would 
say.  As  he  approached,  the  French  set  fire  to 
the  fort,  and  retreated,  together  with  the  Indians 
and  Molly  Maguires. 

Pittsburg  now  stands  on  this  historic  ground, 
and  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  cities  of 
America. 

Many  other  changes  were  going  on  at  this  time. 


118     -    HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

The  English  got  possession  of  Acadia  and  the 
French  forts  at  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy. 

In  1757  General  Loudon  collected  an  army  for 
an  attack  on  Louisburg.  He  drilled  his  troops 
all  summer,  and  then  gave  up  the  attack  because 
he  learned  that  the  French  had  one  more  skiff 
than  he  had. 

•The  Loudons  of  America  at  the  time  of  this 
writing  are  more  quiet  and  sensible  regarding 
their  ancestry  than  any  of  the  doodle-bug  aristoc- 
racy of  our  promoted  peasantry  and  the  crested 
Yahoos  of  our  cowboy  republic. 

The  Loudons — or  Lowdowns — of  America  had 
a  very  large  family.  Some  of  them  changed  their 
names  and  moved. 

The  next  year  after  the  fox  pass  of  General 
Loudon,  Amherst  and  Wolfe  took  possession  of 
the  entire  island. 

About  the  time  of  Braddock's  justly  celebrated 
expedition  another  started  out  for  Crown  Point. 
The  French,  under  Dieskau  (pronounced  dees- 
kow),  met  the  army  composed  of  Colonial  troops 
in  plain  clothes,  together  with  the  regular  troops 
led  by  officers  with  drawn  swords  and  overdrawn 
salaries.  The  regular  general,  seeing  that  the 
battle  was  lost,  excused  himself  and  retired  to  his 
tent,  owing  to  an  ingrowing  nail  which  had  an- 
noyed him  all  day.  Lyman,  the  Colonial  officer 
now  took  command,  and  wrung  victory  from  the 


INTERCOLONIAL  AND  INDIAN  WARS.        I 


reluctant  jaws  of  defeat.  For  this  Johnson,  the 
English  general,  received  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars  and  a  baronetcy,  while  Lyman  received  a 
plated  butter-dish  and  a  bass-wood  what-not.  But 
Lyman  was  a  married  man,  and  had  learned  to 
take  things  as  they  came. 

Four  months  prior  to  the  capture  of  Duquesne, 
one  thousand  boats  loaded  with  soldiers,  each  with 
a  neat  little  lunch-basket  and  a  little  flag  to  wave 
when  they  hurrahed  for  the  good  kind  man  at  the 
head  of  the  picnic, — viz.,  General  Abercrombie, — 
sailed  down  Lake  George  to  get  a  whiff  of  fresh 
air  and  take  Ticonderoga. 

When  they  arrived,  General  Abercrombie  took 
out  a  small  book  regarding  tactics  which  he  had 
bought  on  the  boat,  and,  after  refreshing  his  mem- 
ory, ordered  an  assault.  He  then  went  back  to 
see  how  his  rear 
was,  and,  finding 
it  all  right,  he 
went  back  still 
farther,  to  see 
if  no  one  had 
been  left  behind. 

Abercrombie  never  for- 
got or  overlooked  any  one. 
He  wanted  all  of  his  pleas- 
ure-party to  be  where  they 
could  see  the  fight. 


ABERCROMBIE   WENT  BACK   TO    THE   REAR. 


120         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

In  that  way  he  missed  it  himself.  I  would  hate 
to  miss  a  fight  that  way. 

The  Abercrombies  of  America  mostly  trace 
their  ancestry  back  by  a  cut-off  avoiding  the  gen- 
eral's line. 

Niagara  had  an  expedition  sent  against  it  at'the 
time  of  Braddock's  trip.  The  commander  was 
General  Shirley,  but  he  ran  out  of  money  while  at 
the  Falls  and  decided  to  return.  This  post  did 
not  finally  surrender  till  1759. 

This  gave  the  then  West  to  the  English.  They 
had  tried  for  one  hundred  and  forty  years  to 
civilize  it,  but,  alas,  with  only  moderate  success. 
Prosperous  and  happy  even  while  sniping  in  their 
fox-hunting  or  canvas-back-duck  clothes,  these 
people  feel  somewhat  soothed  for  their  lack  of 
culture  because  they  are  well-to-do. 

In  1759  General  Wolfe  anchored  off  Quebec 
with  his  fleet  and  sent  a  boy  up  town  to  ask  if 
there  were  any  letters  for  him  at  the  post-office, 
also  asking  at  what  time  it  would  be  convenient 
to  evacuate  the  place.  The  reply  came  back  from 
General  Montcalm,  an  able  French  general,  that 
there  was  no  mail  for  the  general,  but  if  Wolfe 
was  dissatisfied  with  the  report  he  might  run  up 
personally  and  look  over  the  W's. 

Wolfe  did  so,  taking  his  troops  up  by  an  un- 
known cow-path  on  the  off  side  of  the  mountain 
during  the  night,  and  at  daylight  stood  in  battle- 


*     INTERCOLONIAL  AND  INDIAN  WARS.       121 

array  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham.  An  attack  was 
made  by  Montcalm  as  soon  as  he  got  over  his 
wonder  and  surprise.  At  the  third  fire  Wolfe  was 
fatally  wounded,  and  as  he  was  carried  back  to 
the  rear  he  heard  some  one  exclaim, — 

11  They  run  !     They  run  !" 

"Who  run?"  inquired  Wolfe. 

•'The  French  !     The  French  !"  came  the  reply. 

"Now  God  be  praised,"  said  Wolfe,  "I  die 
happy." 

Montcalm  had  a  similar ,  experience.  He  was 
fatally  wounded.  "They  run!  They  run!"  he 
heard  some  one  say. 

"Who  run?"  exclaimed  Montcalm,  wetting  his 
lips  with  a  lemonade-glass  of  cognac. 

"We  do,"  replied  the  man. 

"Then  so  much  the  better,"  said  Montcalm,  as 
his  eye  lighted  up,  "for  I  shall  not  live  to  see 
Quebec  surrendered." 

This  shows  what  can  be  done  without  a  re- 
hearsal ;  also  how  the  historian  has  to  control 
himself  in  order  to  avoid  lying. 

The  death  of  these  two  brave  men  is  a  beauti- 
ful and  dramatic  incident  in  the  history  of  our 
country,  and  should  be  remembered  by  every 
school-boy,  because  neither  lived  to  write  articles 
criticising  the  other. 

Five  days  later  the  city  capitulated.  An  at- 
tempt was  made  to  recapture  it,  but  it  was  not 

F  II 


122          HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

successful.  Canada  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
English,  and  from  the  open  Polar  Sea  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi the  English  flag  floated. 

What  an  empire  ! 

What  a  game-preserve  ! 

Florida  was  now  ceded  to  the  already  cedy 
crown  of  England  by  Spain,  and  brandy-and-soda 
for  the  wealthy  and  bitter  beer  became  the  drink 
of  the  poor. 


REMAINED    BY    IT    TILL    DEATH. 


Pontiac's  War  was  brought  on  by  the  Indians, 
who  preferred  the  French  occupation  to  that  of 
the  English.  Pontiac  organized  a  large  number 
of  tribes  on  the  spoils  plan,  and  captured  eight 
forts.  He  killed  a  great  many  people,  burned 
their  dwellings,  and  drove  out  many  more,  but  at 
last  his  tribes  made  trouble,  as  there  were  not 
spoils  enough  to  go  around,  and  his  army  was 
conquered.  He  was  killed  in  1769  by  an  Indian 
who  received  for  his  trouble  a  barrel  of  liquor, 


.      INTERCOLONIAL  AND   INDIAN  WARS.        123 

with  which  he  began  to  make  merry.  He  re- 
mained by  the  liquor  till  death  came  to  his  relief. 

The  heroism  of  an  Indian  who  meets  his  enemy 
single-handed  in  that  way,  and,  though  greatly 
outnumbered,  dies  with  his  face  to  the  foe,  is  de- 
serving of  more  than  a  passing  notice. 

The  French  and  Indian  War  cost  the  Colonists 
sixteen  million  dollars,  of  which  the  English  repaid 
only  five  million.  The  Americans  lost  thirty  thou- 
sand men,  none  of  whom  were  replaced.  They 
suffered  every  kind  of  horror  and  barbarity,  writ- 
ten and  unwritten,  and  for  years  their  taxes  were 
two-thirds  of  their  income  ;  and  yet  they  did  not 
murmur. 

These  were  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  whom 
we  justly  brag.  These  were  the  people  whose 
children  we  are.  What  are  inherited  titles  and 
ancient  names  many  times  since  dishonored,  com- 
pared with  the  heritage  of  uncomplaining  suffering 
and  heroism  which  we  boast  of  to-day  because 
those  modest  martyrs  were  working  people,  proud 
that  by  the  sweat  of  their  brows  they  wrung  from 
a  niggardly  soil  the  food  they  ate,  proud  also  that 
they  could  leave  the  plough  to  govern  or  to  legis- 
late, able  also  to  survey  a  county  or  rule  a  nation. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

PERSONALITY   OF   WASHINGTON. 

IT   would    seem  that  a   few  personal  remarks 
about  George  Washington  at  this  point  might 
not  be  out  of  place.     Later  on  his  part  in 
this  history  will  more  fully  appear. 

The  author  points  with  some  pride  to  a  study  of 
Washington's  great  act  in  crossing  the  Delaware, 
from  a  wax-work  of  great  accuracy.  The  reader 
will  avoid  confusing  Washington  with  the  author, 
who  is  dressed  in  a  plaid  suit  and  on  the  shore, 
while  Washington  may  be  seen  in  this  end  of  the 
boat  with  the  air  of  one  who  has  just  discovered 
the  location  of  a  glue-factory  on  the  side  of  the 
river. 

A  directory  of  Washington's  head-quarters  has 
been  arranged  by  the  author  of  this  book,  and  at 
a  reunion  of  the  general's  body-servants  to  be 
held  in  the  future  the  work  will  be  on  sale. 

The  name  of  George  Washington  has  always 
j    had  about  it  a  glamour  that  made  him  appear 
^    more  in  the  light  of  a  god  than  a  tall  man  with 
\  \    large  feet  and  a  mouth  made  to  fit  an  old-fash- 
ioned full-dress  pumpkin-pie. 
124 


126         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


MY   GREATEST   WORK. 


George  Washington's 
face  has  beamed  out  upon 
us  for  many  years  now,  on 
postage-stamps  and  cur- 
rency, in  marble  and  plaster 
and  in  bronze,  in  photo- 
graphs of  original  portraits, 
paintings,  and  stereoscopic 
views.  We  have  seen  him 
on  horseback  and  on  foot, 
on  the  war-path  and  on 
skates,  playing  the  flute, 
cussing  his  troops  for  their 
shiftlessness,  and  then,  in  the  solitude  of  the 
forest,  with  his  snorting  war-horse  tied  to  a  tree, 
engaged  in  prayer. 

We  have  seen  all  these  pictures  of  George,  till 
we  are  led  to  believe  that  he  did  not  breathe  our 
air  or  eat  American  groceries.  But  George 
Washington  was  not  perfect.  I  say  this  after  a 
long  and  careful  study  of  his  life,  and  I  do  not 
say  it  to  detract  the  very  smallest  iota  from  the 
proud  history  of  the  Father  of  his  Country.  I 
say  it  simply  that  the  boys  of  America  who  want 
to  become  George  Washingtons  will  not  feel  so 
timid  about  trying  it. 

When  I  say  that  George  Washington,  who  now 
lies  so  calmly  in  the  lime-kiln  at  Mount  Vernon, 
could  reprimand  and  reproach  his  subordinates,  at 


PERSONALITY  OF   WASHINGTON.  I2/ 

times,  in  a  way  to  make  the  ground  crack  open 
and  break  up  the  ice  in  the  Delaware  a  week 
earlier  than  usual,  I  do  not  mention  it  in  order 
to  show  the  boys  of  our  day  that  profanity  will 
make  them  resemble  George  Washington.  That 


WASHINGTON    PLAYING   THE    FLUTE. 


was  one  of  his  weak  points,  and  no  doubt  he  was 
ashamed  of  it,  as  he  ought  to  have  been.  Some 
poets  think  that  if  they  get  drunk  and  stay  drunk 
they  will  resemble  Edgar  A.  Poe  and  George  D. 
Prentice.  There  are  lawyers  who  play  poker  year 
after  year  and  get  regularly  skinned  because  they 
have  heard  that  some  of  the  able  lawyers  of  the 


128          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

past  century  used  to  come  home  at   night  with 
poker-chips  in  their  pockets. 

Whiskey  will  not  make  a  poet,  nor  poker  a 
great  pleader.  And  yet  I  have  seen  poets  who 
relied  on  the  potency  of  their  breath,  and  lawyers 
who  knew  more  of  the  habits  of  a  bobtail  flush 


-  c 


THE    AWKWARD    SQUAD. 


than  they  ever  did  of  the  statutes  in  such  case 
made  and  provided. 

George  Washington  was  always  ready.  If  you 
wanted  a  man  to  be  first  in  war,  you  could  call  on 
George.  If  you  desired  an  adult  who  would  be 
first  baseman  in  time  of  peace,  Mr.  Washington 
could  be  telephoned  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or 
night.  If  you  needed  a  man  to  be  first  in  the 


PERSONALITY  OF   WASHINGTON.  129 

hearts  of  his  countrymen,  George's  post-office 
address  was  at  once  secured. 

Though  he  was  a  great  man,  he  was  once  a 
poor  boy.  How  often  you  hear  that  in  America  ! 
Here  it  is  a  positive  disadvantage  to  be  born 
wealthy.  And  yet  sometimes  I  wish  they  had 
experimented  a  little  that  way  on  me.  I  do  not 
ask  now  to  be  born  rich,  of  course,  because  it  is 
too  late  ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that,  with  my  natural 
good  sense  and  keen  insight  into  human  nature, 
I  could  have  struggled  along  under  the  burdens 
and  cares  of  wealth  with  great  success.  I  do  not 
care  to  die  wealthy,  but  if  I  could  have  been  born 
wealthy  it  seems  to  me  I  would  have  been  tickled 
almost  to  death. 

I  love  to  believe  that  true  greatness  is  not  acci- 
dental. To  think  and  to  say  that  greatness  is  a 
lottery,  is  pernicious.  Man  may  be  wrong  some- 
times in  his  judgment  of  others,  both  individually 
and  in  the  aggregate,  but  he  who  gets  ready  to  be 
a  great  man  will  surely  find  the  opportunity. 

You  will  wonder  whom  I  got  to  write  this  senti- 
ment for  me,  but  you  will  never  find  out. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  George  Washing- 
ton was  successful  for  three  reasons.  One  was 
that  he  never  shook  the  confidence  of  his  friends. 
Another  was  that  he  had  a  strong  will  without 
being  a  mule.  Some  people  cannot  distinguish 
between  being  firm  and  being  a  big  blue  donkey. 


130         HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES, 

Another  reason  why  Washington  is  loved  and 
honored  to-day  is  that  he  died  before  we  had  a 
chance  to  get  tired  of  him.  This  is  greatly  supe- 
rior to  the  method  adopted  by  many  modern 
statesmen,  who  wait  till  their  constituency  weary 
of  them,  and  then  reluctantly  pass  away. 


N.  B. — Since  writing  the  foregoing  I  have  found  that  Washington  was 
not  born  a  poor  boy, — a  discovery  which  redounds  greatly  to  his  credit, — 
that  he  was  able  to  accomplish  so  much,  and  yet  could  get  his  weekly 
spending  money  and  sport  a  French  nurse  in  his  extreme  youth. 

B.  N. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

CONTRASTS    WITH    THE    PRESENT.   DAY. 

HERE  it  may  be  well  to  speak  briefly  of  the 
contrast  between  the  usages  and  customs 
of  the  period  preceding  the  Revolution, 
and  the  present  day.  Some  of  these  customs 
and  regulations  have  improved  with  the  lapse  of 
time,  others  undoubtedly  have  not. 

Two  millions  of  people  constituted  the  entire 
number  of  whites,  while  away  to  the  westward  the 
red  brother  extended  indefinitely.  Religiously 
they  were  Protestants,  and  essentially  they  were 
"  a  God-fearing  people."  Taught  to  obey  a  power 
they  were  afraid  of,  they  naturally  turned  with 
delight  to  the  service  of  a  God  whose  genius  in 
the  erection  of  a  boundless  and  successful  hell 
challenged  their  admiration  and  esteem.  So,  too, 
their  own  executions  of  Divine  laws  were  success- 
ful as  they  gave  pain,  and  the  most  beautiful  fea- 
tures of  Christianity, — namely,  love  and  charity, 
— according  to  history,  were  not  cultivated  very 
much. 

There  were  in  New  England  at  one  time  twelve 
offences  punishable  with  death,  and  in  Virginia 


132 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


seventeen.  This  would  indicate  that  the  death- 
penalty  is  getting  unpopular  very  fast,  and  that  in 
the  contiguous  future  humane  people  will  wonder 
why  murder  should  have  called  for  murder,  in  this 
brainy,  charitable,  and  occult  age,  in  which  man 
seems  almost  able  to  pry  open  the  future  and 
catch  a  glimpse  of  Destiny  underneath  the  great 
tent  that  has  heretofore  held  him  off  by  means  of 
death's  prohibitory  rates. 

In   Hartford  people  had  to  get  up  when  the 
town  watchman  rang  his  bell.     The  affairs  of  the 
family,   and  private   matters   too  nu- 
merous  to   mention,   were   regulated 
by   the    selectmen.      The  catalogues 
of  Harvard  and  Yale  were  regulated 
according  to  the  standing  of  the  family 
as  per  record  in  the  old 
country,  and  not  as  per 
bust    measurement    and 
merit,  as  it  is  to-day. 

Scolding  women,  how- 
ever,   were   gagged    and 
tied  to  their  front  doors, 
so    that     the    populace 
could   bite  its   thumb    at   them,   and 
hired    girls    received    fifty   dollars   a 
year,    with    the    understanding    that 
they  were   not   to  have  over  two 
days  out  each  week,  except  Sun- 


THE   TOWN   WATCHMAN. 


CONTRASTS   WITH    THE  PRESENT  DAY.      133 

day  and  the  days  they  had  to  go  and  see  their 
"sick  sisters." 

Some  cloth-weaving  was  indulged  in,  and  home- 
spun was  the  principal  material  used  for  clothing. 
Mrs.  Washington  had  sixteen  spinning-wheels  in 
her  house.  Her  husband  often  wore  homespun 
while  at  home,  and  on  rainy  days  sometimes 
placed  a  pair  of  home-made  trousers  of  the  barn- 
door variety  in  the  Presidential  chair. 

Money  was  very  scarce,  and  ammu- 
nition very  valuable.     In    1635  musket- 
balls  passed  for  farthings,  and  to  see  a 
New   England  peasant  making  change 
with  the  red  brother  at  thirty 
yards  was  a  common  and  de- 
lightful scene. 

The  first  press  was  set  up 
in  Cambridge  in  1639,  with  the 
statement  that  it  "had  come  to 
stay."  Books  printed  in  those 

days  were  mostly  sermons  filled       BOOKS  FILLED  WITH  ASSURANCES  OF 
with  the  most  comfortable  assur- 
ance that  the  man  who  let  loose  his  intellect  and 
allowed  it  to  disbelieve  some  very  difficult  things 

would  be  essentially well,  I  hate  to  say  right 

here  in  a  book  what  would  happen  to  him. 

The  first  daily  paper,  called  The  Federal  Orrery, 
was  issued  three  hundred  years  after  Columbus 
discovered  America.  It  was  not  popular,  and 


12 


134         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

killed  off  the  news-boys  who  tried  to  call  it  on  the 
streets  :  so  it  perished. 

There  was  a  public  library  in  New  York,  from 
which  books  were  loaned  at  fourpence  ha'penny 
per  week.  New  York  thus  became  very  early 
the  seat  of  learning,  and  soon  afterwards  began 
to  abuse  the  site  where  Chicago  now  stands. 

Travel  was  slow,  the  people  went  on  horseback 
or  afoot,  and  when  they  could  go  by  boat  it  was 
regarded  as  a  success.  Wagons  finally  made  the 
trip  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia  in  the  wild 
time  of  forty-eight  hours,  and  the  line  was  called 
The  Flying  Dutchman,  or  some  other  euphoni- 
ous name.  Benjamin  Franklin,  whose  biography 
occurs  in  Chapter  XV.,  was  then  Postmaster- 
General. 

He  was  the  first  bald-headed  man  of  any  prom- 
inence in  the  history  of  America.  He  and  his 
daughter  Sally  took  a  trip  in  a  chaise,  looking 
over  the  entire  system,  and  going  to  all  offices. 
Nothing  pleased  the  Postmaster-General  like 
quietly  slipping  into  a  place  like  Sandy  Bottom 
and  catching  the  postmaster  reading  over  the 
postal  cards  and  committing  them  to  memory. 

Calfskin  shoes  up  to  the  Revolution  were  the 
exclusive  property  of  the  gentry,  and  the  rest 
wore  cowhide  and  were  extremely  glad  to  mend 
them  themselves.  These  were  greased  every 
week  with  tallow,  and  could  be  worn  on  either 


CONTRASTS   WITH  THE  PRESENT  DAY.      135 

foot  with  impunity.  Rights  and  lefts  were  never 
thought  of  until  after  the  Revolutionary  War,  but 
to-day  the  American  shoe  is  the  most  symmetrical, 
comfortable,  and  satisfactory  shoe  made  in  the 
world.  The  British  shoe  is  said  to  be  more  com- 


CAUGHT    BY    FRANKLIN    READING    POSTAL   CARDS. 

fortable.  Possibly  for  a  British  foot  it  is  so,  but 
for  a  foot  containing  no  breathing-apparatus  or 
viscera  it  is  somewhat  roomy  and  clumsy. 

Farmers  and  laborers  of  those  days  wore  green 
or  red  baize  in  the  shape  of  jackets,  and  their 
breeches  were  made  of  leather  or  bed-ticking. 
Our  ancestors  dressed  plainly,  and  a  man  who 


136          HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

could  not  make  over  two  hundred  pounds  per  year 
was  prohibited  from  dressing  up  or  wearing  lace 
worth  over  two  shillings  per  yard.  It  was  a  pretty 
sad  time  for  literary  men,  as  they  were  thus  com- 
pelled to  wear  clothing  like  the  common  laborers. 

Lord  Cornwallis  once  asked  his  aidy  kong  why 
the  American  poet  always  had  such  an  air  of  lis- 
tening as  if  for  some  expected  sound.  "  I  give  it 
up/'  retorted  the  aidy  kong.  "It  is,"  said  Lord 
Cornwallis,  as  he  took  a  large  drink  from  a  jug 
which  he  had  tied  to  his  saddle,  "because  he  is 
trying  to  see  if  he  cannot  hear  his  bed-ticking." 
On  the  following  day  he  surrendered  his  army,  and 
went  home  to  spring  his  bon-mot  on  George  III. 

Yet  the  laws  were  very  stringent  in  other  re- 
spects besides  apparel.  A  man  was  publicly 
whipped  for  killing  a  fowl  on  the  Sabbath  in  New 
England.  In  order  to  keep  a  tavern  and  sell  rum, 
one  had  to  be  of  good  moral  character  and  pos- 
sess property,  which  was  a  good  thing.  The 
names  of  drunkards  were  posted  up  in  the  ale- 
houses, and  the  keepers  forbidden  to  sell  them 
liquor.  No  person  under  twenty  years  of  age 
could  use  tobacco  in  Connecticut  without  a  phy- 
sician's order,  and  no  one  was  allowed  to  use  it 
more  than  once  a  day,  and  then  not  within  ten 
miles  of  any  house.  It  was  a  common  thing  to 
see  large  picnic-parties  going  out  into  the  back- 
woods of  Connecticut  to  smoke. 


CONTRASTS    WITH   THE  PRESENT  DAY.      137 

(Will  the  reader  excuse  me  a  moment  while  I 
light  up  a  peculiarly  black  and  redolent  pipe  ?) 

Only  the  gentry  were  called  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
This  included  the  preacher  and  his  wife.  A  friend 
of  mine  who  is  one  of  the  gentry  of  this  century 


LORD  CORNWALLIS  S  CONUNDRUM. 


got  on  the  trail  of  his  ancestry  last  spring,  and 
traced  them  back  to  where  they  were  not  allowed 
to  be  called  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  and,  fearing  he  would 
fetch  up  in  Scotland  Yard  if  he  kept  on,  he  slowly 
unrolled  the  bottoms  of  his  trousers,  got  a  job  on 
the  railroad,  and  since  then  his  friends  are  grad- 
ually returning  to  him.  He  is  well  pleased  now, 

12* 


138          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

and  looks  humbly  gratified  even  if  you  call  him  a 
gent. 

The  Scriptures  were  literally  interpreted,  and 
the  Old  Testament  was  read  every  morning,  even 
if  the  ladies  fainted. 

The  custom  yet  noticed  sometimes  in  country 
churches  and  festive  gatherings  of  placing  the 
males  and  females  on  opposite  sides  of  the  room 
was  originated  not  so  much  as  a  punishment  to 
both,  as  to  give  the  men  an  opportunity  to  act 
together  when  the  red  brother  felt  ill  at  ease. 

I  am  glad  the  red  brother  does  not  molest  us 
nowadays,  and  make  us  sit  apart  that  way.  Keep 
away,  red  brother  ;  remain  on  your  reservation, 
please,  so  that  the  pale-face  may  sit  by  the  loved 
one  and  hold  her  little  soft  hand  during  the 
sermon. 

Church  services  meant  business  in  those  days. 
People  brought  their  dinners  and  had  a  general 
penitential  gorge.  Instrumental  music  was  pro- 
scribed, as  per  Amos  fifth  chapter  and  twenty- 
third  verse,  and  the  length  of  prayer  was  measured 
by  the  physical  endurance  of  the  performer. 

The  preacher  often  boiled  his  sermon  down  to 
four  hours,  and  the  sexton  up-ended  the  hour- 
glass each  hour.  Boys  who  went  to  sleep  in 
church  were  sand-bagged,  and  grew  up  to  be 
border  murderers. 

New    York    people    were    essentially   Dutch. 


CONTRASTS   WITH  THE  PRESENT  DA  Y.      1 39 

New  York  gets  her  Santa  Claus,  her  doughnuts, 
crullers,  cookies,  and  many  of  her  odors,  from 
the  Dutch.  The  New  York  matron  ran  to  fine 
linen  and  a  polished  door-knocker,  while  the 
New  England  housewife  spun  linsey-woolsey  and 
knit  "yarn  mittens"  for  those  she  loved. 

Philadelphia  was  the  largest  city  in  the  United 
States,  and  was  noted  for  its  cleanliness  and  gen- 
erally sterling  qualities  of  mind  and  heart,  its 
Sabbath  trance  and  clean  white  door-steps. 

The  Southern  Colonies  were  quite  different  from 
those  of  the  North.  In  place  of  thickly-settled 
towns  there  were  large  plantations  with  African 
villages  near  the  house  of  the  owner.  The  pro- 
prietor was  a  sort  of  country  squire,  living  in  con- 
siderable comfort  for  those  days.  He  fed  and 
clothed  everybody,  black  or  white,  who  lived  on 
the  estate,  and  waited  patiently  for  the  colored 
people  to  do  his  work  and  keep  well,  so  that  they 
would  be  more  valuable.  The  colored  people 
were  blessed  with  children  at  a  great  rate,  so  that 
at  this  writing,  though  voteless,  they  send  a  large 
number  of  members  to  Congress.  This  cheers 
the  Southern  heart  and  partially  recoups  him  for 
his  chickens.  (See  Appendix.) 

The  South  then,  as  now,  cured  immense  quan- 
tities of  tobaeco,  while  the  North  tried  to  cure 
those  who  used  it. 

Washington  was  a  Virginian.     He  packed  his 


140 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


own  flour  with  his  own  hands,  and  it  was  never 
inspected.  People  who  knew  him  said  that  the 
only  man  who  ever  tried  to  inspect  Washington's 
flour  was  buried  under  a  hill  of  choice  watermelons 
at  Mount  Vernon. 

Along  the  James  and  Rappahannock  the  vast 
estates  often  passed  from  father  to  son  according 
to  the  law  of  entail,  and  such  a 
thing  as  a  poor  man  "  prior  to  the 
war"  must  have  been  unknown. 


NOT   RICH    BEFORE   THE   WAR. 


CONTRASTS    WITH  THE  PRESENT  DAY.      141 

Education,  however,  flourished  more  at  the 
North,  owing  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  people 
lived  more  in  communities.  Governor  Berkeley 
of  Virginia  was  opposed  to  free  schools  from  the 
start,  and  said,  "I  thank  God  there  are  no  free 
schools  nor  printing-presses  here,  and  I  hope  we 
shall  not  have  them  these  hundred  years."  His 
prayer  has  been  answered. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE    REVOLUTIONARY   WAR. 

WILLIAM  PITT  was  partly  to  blame  for  the 
Revolutionary  War.  He  claimed  that 
the  Colonists  ought  not  to  manufacture 
so  much  as  a  horseshoe  nail  except  by  permission 
of  Parliament. 

It  was  already  hard  enough  to  be  a  colonist, 
without  the  privilege  of  expressing  one's  self  even 
to  an  Indian  without  being  fined.  But  when  we 
pause  to  think  that  England  seemed  to  demand 
that  the  colonist  should  take  the  long  wet  walk 
to  Liverpool  during  a  busy  season  of  the  year  to 
get  his  horse  shod,  we  say  at  once  that  P.  Henry 
was  right  when  he  exclaimed  that  the  war  was 
inevitable  and  moved  that  permission  be  granted 
for  it  to  come. 

Then  came  the  Stamp  Act,  making  almost 
everything  illegal  that  was  not  written  on  stamp 
paper  furnished  by  the  maternal  country. 

John  Adams,  Patrick  Henry,  and  John  Otis 
made  speeches  regarding  the  situation.  Bells 
were  tolled,  and  fasting  and  prayer  marked  the 
first  of  November,  the  day  for  the  law  to  go  into 

effect. 
142 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY   WAR.  1 43 

These  things  alarmed  England  for  the  time,  and 
the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed  ;  but  the  king,  who 
had  been  pretty  free  with  his  money  and  had 
entertained  a  good  deal,  began  to  look  out  for  a 
chance  to  tax  the  Colonists,  and  ordered  his 
Exchequer  Board  to  attend  to  it. 

Patrick  Henry  got  excited,  and  said  in 
an  early  speech,  "Caesar  had  his  Brutus, 
Charles  the  First  his  Cromwell,  and  George 

the  Third "     Here  he  paused  and  took 

a  long  swig  of  pure  water,  and  added,  look- 
ing at  the  newspaper  reporters,  "  If  this  be 

i  i  f       •        »  T  T  -I  PATRICK    HENRY, 

treason,  make  the  most  of  it.       He  also 
said  that  George  the  Third  might  profit  by  their 
example.      A   good   many  would   like   to   know 
what  he  started  out  to  say,  but  it  is  too  hard  to 
determine. 

Boston  ladies  gave  up  tea  and  used  the  dried 
leaves  of  the  raspberry,  and  the  girls  of  1777 
graduated  in  homespun.  Could  the  iron  heel  of 
despotism  crunch  such  a  spirit  of  liberty  as  that  ? 
Scarcely.  In  one  family  at  Newport  four  hundred 
and  eighty-seven  yards  of  cloth  and  thirty-six  pairs 
of  stockings  were  spun  and  made  in  eighteen 
months. 

When  the  war  broke  out  it  is  estimated  that 
each  Colonial  soldier  had  twenty-seven  pairs  of 
blue  woollen  socks  with  white  double  heels  and 
toes.  Does  the  intelligent  reader  believe  that 


144 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


" Tommy  Atkins,"  with  two  pairs  of  socks  "and 
hit  a-rainin',"  could  whip  men  with  twenty-seven 
pairs  each  ?  Not  without  restoratives. 

Troops  were  now  sent  to  restore  order.  They 
were  clothed  by  the  British  government,  but 
boarded  around  with  the  Colonists.  This  was 


irritating  to  the 
pie,  because 


they 


THE   BRITISH    BOARDING   'ROUND. 


had    never  met   or 
called  on  the   Brit- 
ish troops.     Again,  they  did  not  know  the  troops 
were    coming,    and    had    made    no    provision   for 
them. 

Boston  was  considered  the  hot-bed  of  the  rebel- 
lion, and  General  Gage  was  ordered  to  send  two 
regiments  of  troops  there.  He  did  so,  and  a  fight 
ensued,  in  which  three  citizens  were  killed. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY   WAR.  145 

In  looking  over  this  incident,  we  must  not  for- 
get that  in  those  days  three  citizens  went  a  good 
deal  farther  than  they  do  now. 

The  fight,  however,  was  brief.  General  Gage, 
getting  into  a  side  street,  separated  from  his  com- 
mand, and,  coming  out  on  the  Common  abruptly, 
he  tried  eight  or  nine  more  streets,  but  he  came 
out  each  time  on  the  Common,  until,  torn  with 
conflicting  emotions,  he  hired  a  Herdic,  which 
took  him  around  the  corner  to  his  quarters. 

On  December  16,  1773,  occurred  the  tea-party 
at  Boston,  which  must  have  been  a  good  deal 
livelier  than  those  of  to-day.  The  historian  re- 
grets that  he  was  not  there  ;  he  would  have  tried 
to  be  the  life  of  the  party. 

England  had  finally  so  arranged  the  price  of 
tea  that,  including  the  tax,  it  was  cheaper  in 
America  than  in  the  old  country.  This  exas- 
perated the  patriots,  who  claimed  that  they  were 
confronted  by  a  theory  and  not  a  condition.  At 
Charleston  this  tea  was  stored  in  damp  cellars, 
where  it  spoiled.  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
returned  their  ships,  but  the  British  would  not 
allow  any  shenanegin',  as  George  III.  so  tersely 
termed  it,  in  Boston. 

Therefore  a  large  party  met  in  Faneuil  Hall 
and  decided  that  the  tea  should  not  be  landed. 
A  party  made  up  as  Indians,  and,  going  on  board, 
threw  the  tea  overboard.  Boston  Harbor,  as  far 

G  k  13 


146         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

out  as  the  Bug  Light,  even  to-day,  is  said  to  be 
carpeted  with  tea-grounds. 

George  III.  now  closed  Boston  harbor  and  made 
General  Gage  Governor  of  Massachusetts.  The 
Virginia  Assembly  murmured  at  this,  and  was 
dissolved  and  sent  home  without  its  mileage. 


BOSTON    TEA-PARTY,    1773. 


Those  opposed  to  royalty  were  termed  Whigs, 
those  in  favor  were  called  Tories.  Now  they  are 
called  Chappies  or  Authors. 

On  the  5th  of  September,  1774,  the  first  Con- 
tinental Congress  assembled  at  Philadelphia  and 
was  entertained  by  the  Clover  Club.  Congress 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR.  1 47 

acted  slowly  even  then,  and  after  considerable 
delay  resolved  that  the  conduct  of  Great  Britain 
was,  under  the  circumstances,  uncalled  for.  It 
also  voted  to  hold  no  intercourse  with  Great 
Britain,  and  decided  not  to  visit  Shakespeare's 
grave  unless  the  mother-country  should  apologize. 
In  1775,  on  the  igth  of  April,  General  Gage 


BOSTON    TEA-PARTY,    1893 


sent  out  troops  to  see  about  some  military  stores 
at  Concord,  but  af  Lexington  he  met  with  a  com- 
pany of  minute-men  gathering  on  the  village 
green.  Major  Pitcairn,  who  was  in  command  of 
the  Tommies,  rode  up  to  the  minute-men,  and, 
drawing  his  bright  new  Sheffield  sword,  exclaimed, 
"  Disperse,  you  rebels  !  throw  down  your  arms 
and  disperse  !"  or  some  such  remark  as  that. 
The  Americans  hated  to  do  that,  so  they  did 


148         HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

not.     In  the  skirmish  that  ensued,  seven  of  their 
number  were  killed. 

Thus  opened  the  Revolutionary  War, — a  con- 
test which  but  for  the  earnestness  and  irritability 
of  the  Americans  would  have  been  extremely 
brief.  It  showed  the  relative  difference  between 
the  fighting  qualities  of  soldiers  who  fight  for  two 
pounds  ten  shillings  per  month  and  those  who 
fight  because  they  have  lost  their  temper. 

The  regulars  destroyed  the  stores,  but  on  the 
way  home  they  found  every  rock-pile  hid  an  old- 
fashioned  gun  and  minute-man.  This  shows  that 
there  must  have  been  an  enormous  number  of 
minute-men  then.  All  the  English  who  got  back 
to  Boston  were  those  who  went  out  to  reinforce 
the  original  command. 

The  news  went  over  the  country  like  wildfire. 
These  are  the  words  of  the  historian.  Really, 
that  is  a  poor  comparison,  for  wildfire  doesn't 
jump  rivers  and  bays,  or  get  up  and  eat  breakfast 
by  candle-light  in  order  to  be  on  the  road  and 
spread  the  news. 

General  Putnam  left  a  pair  of  tired  steers  stand- 
ing in  the  furrow,  and  rode  one  hundred  miles 
without  feed  or  water  to  Boston. 

Twenty  thousand  men  were  soon  at  work  build- 
ing  intrenchments   around    Boston,   so   that   the 
English  troops  could  not  get  out  to  the  suburbs 
where  many  of  them  resided. 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY   WAR. 


149 


GENERAL   PUTNAM    LEAVING    A    PAIR    OF   TIRED    STEERS. 


I  will  now  speak  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 

This  battle  occurred  June  17.  The  Americans 
heard  that  their  enemy  intended  to  fortify  Bunker 
Hill,  and  so  they  determined  to  do  it  themselves, 
in  order  to  have  it  done  in  a  way  that  would  be  a 
credit  to  the  town. 

A  body  of  men  under  Colonel  Prescott,  after 
prayer  by  the  President  of  Harvard  University, 
marched  to  Charlestown  Neck.  They  decided  to 
fortify  Breed's  Hill,  as  it  was  more  commanding, 
and  all  night  long  they  kept  on  fortifying.  The 
surprise  of  the  English  at  daylight  was  well  worth 
going  from  Lowell  to  witness. 

Howe  sent  three  thousand  men  across  and 
formed  them  on  the  landing.  He  marched  them 
up  the  hill  to  within  ten  rods  of  the  earth-works, 
when  it  occurred  to  Prescott  that  it  would  now  be 
the  appropriate  thing  to  fire.  He  made  a  state- 
ment of  that  kind  to  his  troops,  and  those  of  the 


ISO         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 


enemy  who  were  alive  went  back  to  Charlestown. 
But  that  was  no  place  for  them,  as  they  had  pre- 
viously set  it  afire,  so  they  came  back  up  the  hill, 
where  they  were  once  more  well  received  and 
tendered  the  freedom  of  a  future  state. 

Three  times  the  English  did  this,  when  the  am- 
munition in  the  fortifications  gave  out,  and  they 
charged  with  fixed  bayonets  and  reinforcements. 

The  Americans  were  driven  from  the  field,  but 
it  was  a  victory  after  all.  It  united  the  Colonies 
and  made  them  so  vexed  at  the  English  that  it 
took  some  time  to  bring  on  an  era  of  good  feeling. 

Lord  Howe,  referring  afterwards  to  this  battle, 
said  that  the  Americans  did  not  stand  up  and 
fight  like  the  regulars,  suggesting  that  thereafter 
the  Colonial  army  should  arrange  itself  in  the 
following  manner  before  a  battle  ! 

C/ 


GENERAL  HOWE  S   SUGGESTION 


THE  REVOLUTIONARY   WAR. 

However,  the  suggestion  was  not  acted 
The   Colonial   soldiers  declined  to   put 
bright  red  coat  and  a  pill-box  cap,  that  kepi 
falling  off  in  battle,  thus  delaying  the  car- 
nage, but  preferred  to  wear  homespun 
which  was   of  a  neutral   shade,   and 
shoot  their  enemy  from  behind  stumps. 
They  said  it  was  all  right  to 
dress  up  for  a  muster,  but 
they  preferred  their  work- 
ing-clothes   for    fighting. 
After  the  war  a  statistician 
made  the  estimate  that  nine 
per  cent,   of   the   British 
troops  were  shot  while 
ascertaining   if   their 
caps  were  on  straight.*  * 

General  Israel  Putnam  was 
known  as  the  champion  rough 
rider  of  his  day,  and  once  when 
hotly  pursued  rode  down  three 
flights  of  steps,  which,  added 
to  the  flight  he  made  from  the  English  soldiers, 
made  four  flights.  Putnam  knew  not  fear  or  cow- 
ardice, and  his  name  even  to-day  is  the  synonyme 
for  valor  and  heroism. 

*  The  authority  given  for  this  statement,  I  admit,  is  meagre,  but  it  is  as 
accurate  as  many  of  the  figures  by  means  of  which  people  prove  things. — 
B.  N, 


PUTNAM  S    FLIGHT. 


FRANKLIN  S   MORNING    HUNT   FOR    HIS   SHOES. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN,   LL.D.,   PH.G.,   F.R.S.,  ETC. 

IT  is  considered  advisable   by  the  historian  at 
this  time  to  say  a  word  regarding  Dr.  Frank- 
lin,  our   fellow-townsman,    and   a   journalist 
who  was  the  Charles  A.  Dana  of  his  time. 

Franklin's  memory  will  remain  green  when  the 
names  of  the  millionaires  of  to-day  are  forgotten. 
Coextensive  with  the  name  of  E.  Rosewater  of 
the  Omaha  Bee  we  will  find  that  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,  whose  bust  sits  above  the  fireplace  of 
the  writer  at  this  moment,  while  a  large  Etruscan 
hornet  is  making  a  phrenological  examination  of 
same. 
152 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN,  LL  D,,  PH.G.,  ETC    153 


But  let  us  proceed  to  more  fully  mark  out  the 
life  and  labors  of  this  remarkable  man. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  formerly  of  Boston,  came 
very  near  being  an  only  child.  If  seventeen  chil- 
dren had  not  come  to  bless  the  home  of  Ben- 
jamin's parents  they  would  have  been  childless. 
Think  of  getting  up  in  the  morning  and  picking 
out  your  shoes  and  stockings  from  among  seven- 
teen pairs  of  them  ! 

Imagine  yourself  a  child,  gentle  reader,  in  a 
family  where  you  would  be  called  upon  every 
morning  to  select  your  own  cud  of  spruce  gum 
from  a  collection  of  seventeen  similar  cuds  stuck 
on  a  window-sill !  And  yet  Benjamin  Franklin 
never  murmured  or  repined.  He  desired  to  go 
to  sea,  and  to  avoid  this  he  was  ap- 
prenticed to  his  brother  James,  who 
was  a  printer. 

It  is  said  that  Franklin  at  once  took 
hold  of  the  great  Archimedean  lever,  and 
jerked  it  early  and  late  in  the  interests  of 
freedom. 

It  is  claimed  that  Franklin,  at  this  time, 
invented  the  deadly  weapon  known  as  the 
printer's  towel.  He  found  that  a  common 
crash  towel  could  be  saturated  with  glue, 
molasses,  antimony,  concentrated  lye,  and 
roller-composition,  and  that  after  a  few 
years  of  time  and  perspiration  it  would 


THE   PRINTER  S   TOWEL. 


154         HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

harden  so  that  "  A  Constant  Reader"  or  "  Veritas" 
could  be  stabbed  with  it  and  die  soon. 

Many  believe  that  Franklin's  other  scientific 
experiments  were  productive  of  more  lasting 
benefit  to  mankind  than  this,  but  I  do  not  agree 
with  them. 

His  paper  was  called  the  New  England  Cou- 
rant.  It  was  edited  jointly  by  James  and  Ben- 
jamin Franklin,  and  was  started  to  supply  a 
long-felt  want. 

Benjamin  edited  it  a  part  of  the  time,  and  James 
a  part  of  the  time.  The  idea  of  having  two  edi- 
tors was  not  for  the  purpose  of  giving  volume  to 
the  editorial  page,  but  it  was  necessary  for  one  to 
run  the  paper  while  the  other  was  in  jail. 

In  those  days  you  could  not  sass  the  king,  and 
then,  when  the  king  came  in  the  office  the  next 
day  and  stopped  his  paper  and  took  out  his  ad., 
put  it  off  on  "our  informant"  and  go  right  along 
with  the  paper.  You  had  to  go  to  jail,  while  your 
subscribers  wondered  why  their  paper  did  not 
come,  and  the  paste  soured  in  the  tin  dippers  in 
the  sanctum,  and  the  circus  passed  by  on  the 
other  side. 

How  many  of  us  to-day,  fellow-journalists,  would 
be  willing  to  stay  in  jail  while  the  lawn  festival 
and  the  kangaroo  came  and  went?  Who  of  all 
our  company  would  go  to  a  prison-cell  for  the 
cause  of  freedom  while  a  double-column  ad.  of 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN,  LL  D.,  PH.G.t  ETC.     155 


sixteen  aggregated  circuses,  and  eleven  con- 
gresses of  ferocious  beasts,  fierce  and  fragrant 
from  their  native  lair,  went  by  us  ? 

At  the  age  of  seventeen  Ben  got  disgusted 
with  his  brother,  and  went  to  Philadelphia  and 
New  York,  where  he  got  a  chance 
to  "  sub"  for  a  few  weeks  and  then 
got  a  regular  "sit." 

Franklin  was  a  good  printer, 
and  finally  got  to  be  a  foreman. 
He  made  an  excellent  foreman, 
sitting  by  the  hour  in  the  com- 
posing-room and  spitting  on  the 
stove,  while  he  cussed  the  make- 
up and  press-work  of  the  other 
papers.  Then  he  would  go  into 
the  editorial  rooms  and  scare 
the  editors  to  death  with  a  wild 
shriek  for  more  copy. 

He  knew  just  how  to  conduct 
himself  as  a  foreman  so  that  stran- 
gers would  think  he  owned  the 
paper. 

In  1730,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  Franklin 
married,  and  established  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette. 
He  was  then  regarded  as  a  great  man,  and  almost 
every  one  took  his  paper. 

Franklin  grew  to  be  a  great  journalist,  and 
spelled  hard  words  with  great  fluency.  He  never 


FRANKLIN   AS    FOREMAN. 


156       HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

tried  to   be  a  humorist  in  any  of  his  news- 
paper work,  and  everybody  respected  him. 

Along  about  1746  he  began  to  study  the 
habits  and  construction  of  lightning,  and  in- 
serted a  local  in  his  paper  in  which  he  said 
that   he    would    be    obliged    to    any  of  his 
readers  who  might  notice  any  new  or  odd 
specimens  of  lightning,  if  they  would  send 
them  in  to  the  Gazette  office  for  exami- 
nation. 

Every  time    there  was    a    thunder- 
storm  Franklin  .would   tell   the  fore- 
man to   edit  the  paper,  and,  armed 
with   a    string   and    an    old    door- 
key,    he    would    go    out    on    the 
\      hills  and  get  enough  lightning 
for  a  mess. 


FRANKLIN    EXPERIMENTING    WITH    LIGHTNING. 


158          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

In  1753  Franklin  was  made  postmaster  of  the 
Colonies.  He  made  a  good  Postmaster-General, 
and  people  say  there  were  fewer  mistakes  in  dis- 
tributing their  mail  then  than  there  have  ever  been 
since.  If  a  man  mailed  a  letter  in  those  days,  old 
Ben  Franklin  saw  that  it  went  to  where  it  was 
addressed. 

Franklin  frequently  went  over  to  England  in 
those  days,  partly  on  business  and  partly  to  shock 
the  king.  He  liked  to  go  to  the  castle  with  his 
breeches  tucked  in  his  boots,  figuratively  speaking, 
and  attract  a  great  deal  of  attention. 

It  looked  odd  to  the  English,  of  course,  to  see 
him  come  into  the  royal  presence,  and,  leaning  his 
wet  umbrella  up  against  the  throne,  ask  the  king, 
"  How's  trade?" 

Franklin  never  put  on  any  frills,  but  he  was  not 
afraid  of  a  crowned  head.  He  used  to  say,  fre- 
quently, that  a  king  to  him  was  no  more  than  a 
seven-spot. 

He  did  his  best  to  prevent  the  Revolutionary 
War,  but  he  couldn't  do  it.  Patrick  Henry  had 
said  that  the  war  was  inevitable,  and  had  given  it 
permission  to  come,  and  it  came. 

He  also  went  to  Paris,  and  got  acquainted  with 
a  few  crowned  heads  there.  They  thought  a  good 
deal  of  him  in  Paris,  and  offered  him  a  corner  lot 
if  he  would  build  there  and  start  a  paper.  They 
also  promised  him  the  county  printing  ;  but  he 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN,  LL.D.,  Pff.G.,  ETC.    159 


said,  No,  he  would  have  to  go  back 
to  America  or  his  wife  might  get 
uneasy  about  him.  Franklin  wrote 
"Poor  Richard's  Almanac"  in  1732 
to  1757,  and  it  was  republished  in 
England. 

Franklin    little    thought,    when    he 
went  to  the  throne-room  in  his  leather 
riding-clothes  and  hung  his  hat  on 
the   throne,   that    he   was    inaugu- 
rating a  custom  of  wearing  groom 
clothes  which  would  in  these  days 
be  so  popular  among  the  English. 

Dr.  Franklin  entered  Philadelphia 
eating  a  loaf  of  bread  and  carrying 
a  loaf  under  each  arm,  passing  beneath  the  win- 
dow of  the  girl  to  whom  he  afterwards  gave  his 
hand  in  marriage. 

Nearly  everybody  in  America,  except  Dr.  Mary 
Walker,  was  once  a  poor  boy. 


FRANKLIN   ENTERING   PHILA- 
DELPHIA. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE    CRITICAL    PERIOD. 

ETHAN  ALLEN  and  Benedict  Arnold  on  the 
loth  of  May  led  two   small  companies  to 
Ticonderoga,  a  strong  fortress  tremendously 
fortified,  and  with  its  name  also  across  the  front 
door.     Ethan  Allen,  a  brave  Vermonter  born  in 
Connecticut,  entered  the  sally-port,  and  was  shot 
at  by  a  guard  whose  musket   failed   to  report. 
Allen  entered  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the 
fortress. 

"  By  whose  authority?"  asked  the  commandant. 

"  By  the  authority  of  the  Great  Jehovah  and 
the  Continental  Congress,"  said  Allen,  brandishing 
his  naked  sword  at  a  great  rate. 

"  Very  well,"  said  the  officer  :  "  if  you  put  it  on 
those  grounds,  all  right,  if  you  will  excuse  the 
appearance  of  things.  We  were  just  cleaning 
up,  and  everything  is  by  the  heels  here." 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Allen,  who  was  the  soul  of 
politeness.  "We  put  on  no  frills  at  home,  and 
so  we  are  ready  to  take  things  as  we  find  them." 

The  Americans  therefore  got  a  large  amount  of 
munitions  of  war,  both  here  and  at  Crown  Point. 
1 60 


THE   CRITICAL   PERIOD.  l6l 

General  Washington  was  now  appointed  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  all  the  troops  at  the  second 
session  of  the  Continental  Congress.  On  his 
arrival  at  Boston  there  were  only  fourteen  thou- 
sand men.  He  took  command  under  the  historic 
elm  at  Cambridge.  He  was  dressed  in  a  blue 
broadcloth  coat  with  flaps  and  revers  of  same, 
trimmed  with  large  beautiful  buttons.  He  also 
wore  buff  small-clothes,  with  openings  at  the  sides 
where  pockets  are  now  put  in,  but  at  that  time 
given  up  to  space.  They  were  made  in  such  a 
way  as  to  prevent  the  naked  eye  from  discovering 
at  once  whether  he  was  in  advance  or  retreat. 
He  also  wore  silk  stockings  and  a  cocked  hat. 

The  lines  of  Dryden  starting  off  "  Mark  his 
majestic  fabric"  were  suggested  by  his  appearance 
and  general  style.  He  always  dressed  well  and 
rode  a  good  horse,  but  at  Valley  Forge  frosted 
his  feet  severely,  and  could  have  drawn  a  pension, 
"but  no,"  said  he,  "I  can  still  work  at  light  em- 
ployment, like  being  President,  and  so  I  will  not 
ask  for  a  pension." 

Each  soldier  had  less  than  nine  cartridges,  but 
Washington  managed  to  keep  General  Gage 
penned  up  in  Boston,  and,  as  Gage  knew  very 
few  people  there,  it  was  a  dull  winter  for  him. 

The  boys  of  Boston  had  built  snow  hills  on  the 
Common,  and  used  to  slide  down  them  to  the  ice 
below,  but  the  British  soldiers  tore  down  their 
i  14* 


1 62 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


coasting-places    and    broke    up    the    ice    on    the 
pond. 

They  stood  it  a  long  time,  rebuilding  their  play- 
ground as  often  as  it  was  torn  down,  until  the 
spirit  of  American  freedom  could  endure  it  no 


INTELLECTUAL   TRIUMPH    OF   THE   YOUTH    OF   BOSTON   OVER   GENERAL  GAGE. 


longer.  They  then  organized  a  committee  con- 
sisting of  eight  boys  who  were  noted  for  their 
great  philosophical  research,  and  with  Charles 
Sumner  Muzzy,  the  eloquent  savant  from  Milk 
Street,  as  chairman,  the  committee  started  for 
General  Gage's  head-quarters,  to  confer  with  him 
regarding  the  matter. 


THE   CRITICAL  PERIOD.  163 

In  the  picture  Mr.  Muzzy  is  seen  addressing 
General  Gage.  The  boy  in  the  centre  with  the 
colored  glasses  is  Marco  Bozzaris  Cobb,  who  dis- 
covered and  first  brought  into  use  the  idea  of 
putting  New  Orleans  molasses  into  Boston  brown 
bread.  To  the  left  of  Mr.  Cobb  is  Mr.  Jehoab 
Nye,  who  afterwards  became  the  Rev.  Jehoab 
Nye  and  worked  with  heart  and  voice  for  over 
eight  of  the  best  years  of  his  life  against  the 
immorality  of  the  codfish-ball,  before  he  learned 
of  its  true  relations  towards  society. 

Above  and  between  these  two  stands  Whom- 
soever J.  Opper,  who  wrote  "  How  to  make  the 
Garden  Pay"  and  "  What  Responsible  Person  will 
see  that  my  Grave  is  kept  green?"  In  the  back- 
ground we  see  the  tall  form  of  Wherewithal  G. 
Lumpy,  who  introduced  the  Pompadour  hair-cut 
into  Massachusetts  and  grew  up  to  be  a  great 
man  with  enlarged  joints  but  restricted  ideas. 

Charles  Sumner  Muzzy  addressed  General  Gage 
at  some  length,  somewhat  to  the  surprise  of  Gage, 
who  admitted  in  a  few  well-chosen  words  that  the 
committee  was  right,  and  that  if  he  had  his  way 
about  it  there  should  be  no  more  trouble. 

Charles  was  followed  by  Marco  Bozzaris  Cobb, 
who  spoke  briefly  of  the  boon  of  liberty,  closing 
as  follows  :  "  We  point  with  pride,  sir,  to  the  love 
of  freedom,  which  is  about  the  only  excitement 
we  have.  We  love  our  country,  sir,  whether  we 


164 


HISTORY  OF  ThE   UNITED  STATES. 


love  anything  else  much  or  not.  The  distant 
wanderer  of  American  birth,  sir,  pines  for  his 
country.  '  Oh,  give  me  back,'  he  goes  on  to  say, 
'  my  own  fair  land  across  the  bright  blue  sea,  the 
land  of  beauty  and  of  worth,  the  bright  land  of 
the  free,  where  tyrant  foot  hath  never  trod,  nor 
bigot  forged  a  chain.  Oh,  would  that  I  were 
safely  back  in  that  bright  land  again  !' ' 

Mr.  Wherewithal  G.  Lumpy  said  he  had  hardly 
expected  to  be  called  upon,  and  so  had  not  pre- 
pared himself,  but.  this  occasion  forcibly  brought 
to  his  mind  the  words  also  of  the  poet,  "  Our 
country  stands,"  said  he,  "  with  outstretched  hands 
appealing  to  her  boys ;  from 
them  must  flow  her  weal  or 
woe,  her  anguish  or  her  joys. 
A  ship  she  rides  on  human 
tides  which  rise  and  sink  anon  : 
each  giant  wave  may  prove  her 
grave,  or  bear  her  nobly  on. 
The  friends  of  right,  with  armor 
bright,  a  valiant  Christian  band, 
through  God  her  aid  may  yet 
be  made,  a  blessing  to  our 
land." 

General  Gage  was  completely 
overcome,  and  asked  for  a  mo- 
ment to  go  apart  and  think  it 
over,  which  he  did,  returning 


GENERAL  GAGE   THINKING    IT   OVER. 


THE   CRITICAL  PERIOD.  165 

with  an  air  which  reminded  one  of  "Ten  Nights 
in  a  Bar-Room." 

"  You  may  go,  my  brave  boys  ;  and  be  assured 
that  if  my  troops  molest  you  in  the  future,  or  any- 
where else,  I  will  overpower  them  and  strew  the 
Common  with  their  corses." 

"  Of  corse  he  will,"  said  the  hairy  boy  to  the 
right  of  Whomsoever  J.  Opper,  who  afterwards  be- 
came the  father  of  a  lad  who  grew  up  to  be  editor 
of  the  Persiflage  column  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly. 

Thus  the  boys  of  America  impressed  General 
Gage  with  their  courage  and  patriotism  and  grew 
up  to  be  good  men. 

An  expedition  to  Canada  was  fitted  out  the 
same  winter,  and  an  attack  made  on  Quebec,  in 
which  General  Montgomery  was  killed  and  Bene 
diet  Arnold  showed  that  he  was  a  brave  soldier, 
no  matter  how  the  historian  may  have  hopped  on 
him  afterwards. 

The  Americans  should  not  have  tried  to  take 
Canada.  Canada  was,  as  Henry  Clay  once  said, 
a  persimmon  a  trifle  too  high  for  the  American 
pole,  and  it  is  the  belief  of  the  historian,  whose 
tears  have  often  wet  the  pages  of  this  record, 
that  in  the  future  Canada  will  be  what  America 
is  now,  a  free  country  with  a  national  debt  of 
her  own,  a  flag  of  her  own,  an  executive  of  her 
own,  and  a  regular  annual  crisis  of  her  own,  like 
other  nations. 


1 66 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 


LORD  HOWE  FELT  THE  COLD  VERY  KEENLY. 


In  1776  Boston  was  evac- 
uated. Washington,  in 
order  to  ascertain  whether 
Lord  Howe  had  a  call  to 
fish,  cut  bait,  or  go  ashore, 
began  to  fortify  Dorchester 
Heights,  March  1 7,  and  on 
the  following  morning  he 
,/  was  not  a  little  surprised 
/  to  note  the  change.  As 
the  weather  was  raw,  and 
he  had  been  in -doors  a 
good  deal  during  the  win- 
ter, Lord  Howe  felt  the 
cold  very  keenly.  He  went  to  the  window  and 
looked  at  the  Americans,  but  he  would  come  back 
chilly  and  ill-tempered  to  the  fire  each  time. 
Finally  he  hitched  up  and  went  away  to  Halifax, 
where  he  had  acquaintances. 

On  June  28  an  attack  was  made  by  the  English 
on  Fort  Moultrie.  It  was  built  of  palmetto  logs, 
which  are  said  to  be  the  best  thing  in  the  world  to 
shoot  into  if  one  wishes  to  recover  the  balls  and 
use  them  again.  Palmetto  logs  accept  and  retain 
balls  for  many  years,  and  are  therefore  good  for 
forts. 

When  the  fleet  got  close  enough  to  the  fort  so 
that  the  brave  Charlestonians  could  see  the  ex- 
pression on  the  admiral's  face,  they  turned  loose 


THE   CRITICAL  PERIOD. 


I67 


with  everything  they  had,  grape,  canister,  solid 
shot,  chain-shot,  bar-shot,  stove-lids,  muffin-irons, 
newspaper  cuts,  etc.,  etc.,  so  that  the  decks  were 
swept  of  every  living  thing  except  the  admiral. 


r  .^ 


JEFFERSON    DICTATING   THE   DECLARATION    OF   INDEPENDENCE. 


General  Clinton  by  land  tried  to  draw  the  atten- 
tion of  the  rear  gunners  of  the  fort,  but  he  was  a 
poor  draughtsman,  and  so  retired,  and  both  the 
land  and  naval  forces  quit  Charleston  and  went  to 
New  York,  where  board  was  not  so  high. 

July  4  was  deemed  a  good  time  to  write  a 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  have  it  read  in 
the  grove. 


•                            <  HISTORY  OF  THE  U.  STATES. 

w 

o  "**  Richard    Henry    Lee,    of 

go)  Virginia,    moved   that    "  the 

8  S  Q  ®  o     *  United  Colonies  are,  and  of 


o  -P  3  "S  '  right  ought  to  be,  free  and 

CO  -f3  T~4   5"« 

1  >  o  §  &-S          Independent   states."     John 
o  ,§  «  <H  o  fi          Adams,     of    Massachusetts, 
J8  ,G  CD  °  -P  w          seconded   the  resolution. 
This  was  passed  July  2,  and 
the  report  of  the  committee 
appointed    to    draw    up    a 
glti*ffAb-  Declaration    of    Indepen- 

*i  £    .  9  9  ®  ®      1    dence  was  adopted  July  4. 

The  Declaration  was  dic- 
tated by  Thomas  Jefferson, 
who  wrote  the  most  melo- 
dious English  of  any  Amer- 
ican of  his  time. 

<D  «o  H    *  >>  Jefferson  had  a  vocabulary 

|  H  §  1  I  J§          next  to  Noah  Webster,  with 
Q  §  1  §jj»  ***          all    the    dramatic    power  of 


§  1  <D  5  *** 

CQ    (4        "Ssk*** 

-H  o  a?  Q  cJ          Dan.      He    composed    the 

»-  .  .-,. 

piece  one  evening  after  his 
other  work.  We  give  a  fac- 
simile  of  the  opening  lines. 

J 

Philadelphia  was  a  scene 
©  §  5  &  CQ  f  '  &      of  great    excitement.      The 


" 


"  "cp^)  streets  were    thronged,  and 

*>          idL      to  ^  -H  ^ 

H  ''13      Pe°ple  sat  down  on  the  nice 

clean  door-steps  with  perfect 


THE   CRITICAL  PERIOD.  169 

recklessness,  although  the  steps  had  just  been 
cleaned  with  ammonia  and  wiped  off  with  a 
chamois-skin.  It  was  a  day  long  to*  be  remem- 
bered, and  one  that  made  George  III.  wish  that 
he  had  reconsidered  his  birth. 

In  the  steeple  of  the  old  State-House  was  a 
bell  which  had  fortunately  upon  it  the  line  "Pro- 
claim liberty  throughout  all  the  land  unto  all  the 
inhabitants  thereof."  It  was  rung  by  the  old  man 
in  charge,  though  he  had  lacked  faith  up  to  that 
moment  in  Congress.  He  believed  that  Con- 
gress would  not  pass  the  resolution  and  adopt 
the  Declaration  till  after  election. 

Thus  was  the  era  of  good  feeling  inaugurated 
both  North  and  South.  There  was  no 
North  then,  no  South;  no  East,  no  West ; 
just  one  common  country,  with  Washing- 
ton acting  as  father  of  same.  Oh,  how 
nice  it  must  have  been  ! 

Washington  was  one  of  the 
sweetest  men  in  the  United  States. 
He  gave  his  hand  in  marriage  to  a 
widow  woman  who  had  two  children 
and  a  dark  red  farm  in  Virginia. 


15 

RINGING    THE    LIBERTY    BELL. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE   BEGINNING    OF   THE   END. 

THE  British  army  now  numbered  thirty  thou- 
sand troops,  while  Washington's  entire 
command  was  not  over  seven  thousand 
strong.  The  Howes,  one  a  general  and  the  other 
an  admiral,  now  turned  their  attention  to  New 
York.  Washington,  however,  was  on  the  ground 
beforehand. 

Howe's  idea  was  to  first  capture  Brooklyn,  so 
that  he  could  have  a  place  in  which  to  sleep  at 
nights  while  engaged  in  taking  New  York. 

The  battle  was  brief.  Howe  attacked  the  little 
army  in  front,  while  General  Clinton  got  around 
by  a  circuitous  route  to  the  rear  of  the  Colonial 
troops  and  cut  them  off.  The  Americans  lost  one 
thousand  men  by  death  or  capture.  The  prison- 
ers were  confined  in  the  old  sugar-house  on  Lib- 
erty Street,  where  they  suffered  the  most  miserable 
and  indescribable  deaths. 

The  army  of  the  Americans  fortunately  escaped 
by  Fulton  Ferry  in  a  fog,  otherwise  it  would  have 
been  obliterated.  Washington  now  fortified  Har- 
lem Heights,  and  later  withdrew  to  White  Plains. 
170 


THE  BEGINNING    OF  THE  END. 


I/I 


Afterwards  he  retired  to  a  fortified  camp  called 
North  Castle. 

Howe  feared  to  attack  him  there,  and  so  sent 
the  Hessians,  who  captured  Fort  Washington, 
November  16. 

It  looked  scaly  for  the  Americans,  as  Motley 
says,  and  Philadelphia  bade  fair  to  join  New  York 
and  other  cities  held  by  the  British.  The  English 
van  could  be  seen  from  the  Colonial  rear  column. 
The  American  troops  were  almost  barefooted,  and 
left  their  blood-stained  tracks  on  the  frozen  road. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Washington  crossed  the 
Delaware  and  thereby  found  himself  on  the  other 
side  ;  while  Howe  decided  to  remain,  as  the 
river  was  freezing,  and  when  the  ice  got  strong 
enough,  cross  over  and  kill 
the  Americans  at  his  leisure. 
Had  he  followed  the  Colo- 
nial army,  it  is  quite  sure 
now  that  the  English  would 
have  conquered,  and  the  au- 
thor would  have  been  the 
Duke  of  Sandy  Bottom,  in- 
stead of  a  plain  American 
citizen,  unknown,  unhonored, 
and  unsung. 

Washington  decided  that 
he  must  strike  a  daring  blow 
while  his  troops  had  any 


NYE   AS    THE    DUKE    OF    SANDY    BOTTOM. 


1 72          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

hope  or  vitality  left ;  and  so  on  Christmas  night, 
after  crossing  the  Delaware  as  shown  elsewhere, 
he  fell  on  the  Hessians  at  Trenton  in  the  midst  of 
their  festivities,  captured  one  thousand  prisoners, 
and  slew  the  leader. 

The  Hessians  were  having  a  symposium  at  the 
time,  and  though  the  commander  received  an  im- 
portant note  of  warning  during  the  Christmas 
dinner,  he  thrust  it  into  his  pocket  and  bade  joy 
be  unconfmed. 

When  daylight  came,  the  Hessians  were  mostly 
moving  in  alcoholic  circles  trying  to  find  their 
guns.  Washington  lost  only  four  men,  and  two 
of  those  were  frozen  to  death. 

The  result  of  this  fight  gave  the  Colonists  cour- 
age and  taught  them  at  the  same  time  that  it 
would  be  best  to  avoid  New  Jersey  symposiums 
till  after  the  war  was  over. 

Having  made  such  a  hit  in  crossing  the  Dela- 
ware, Washington  decided  to  repeat  the  perform- 
ance on  the  3d  of  January.  He  was  attacked  at 
Trenton  by  Cornwallis,  who  is  known  in  history 
for  his  justly  celebrated  surrender.  He  waited 
till  morning,  having  been  repulsed  at  sundown. 
Washington  left  his  camp-fires  burning,  sur- 
rounded the  British,  captured  two  hundred  pris- 
oners, and  got  away  to  Morristown  Heights  in 
safety.  If  the  ground  had  not  frozen,  General 
Washington  could  not  have  moved  his  forty  can- 


THE  BEGINNING   OF  THE  END. 


173 


non  ;  but,  fortunately,  the  thermometer  was  again 
on  his  side,  and  he  never  lost  a  gun. 

September  1 1  the  English  got  into  the  Chesa- 
peake, and  Washington  announced  in  the  papers 
that  he  would  now  fight  the  battle  of  the  Brandy- 
wine,  which  he  did. 


THE  COLONIAL   SURPRISE-PARTY    AT   TRENTON. 

Marie  Jean  Paul  Roch  Yves  Gilbert  Motier, 
Marquis  de  La  Fayette,  fought  bravely  with  the 
Americans  in  this  battle,  twice  having  his  name 
shot  from  under  him. 

The  patriots  were  routed,  scoring  a  goose-egg 
and  losing  Philadelphia. 


174         HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

October  4,  Washington  attacked  the  enemy  at 
German  town,  and  was  beaten  back  just  as  vic- 
tory was  arranging  to  perch  on  his  banner. 
Poor  Washington  now  retired  to  Valley  Forge, 
where  he  put  in  about  the  dullest  winter  of  his 
life. 

The  English  had  not  been  so  successful  in  the 
North.  At  first  the  Americans  could  only  delay 
Burgoyne  by  felling  trees  in  the  path  of  his  eight 
thousand  men,  which  is  a  very  unsatisfactory  sort 
of  warfare,  but  at  last  Schuyler,  who  had  borne 
the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day,  was  succeeded  by 
Gates,  and  good  luck  seemed  to  come  slowly  his 
way. 

A  foolish  boy  with  bullet-holes  cut  in  his  clothes 
ran  into  St.  Leger's  troops,  and  out  of  breath  told 
them  to  turn  back  or  they  would  fill  a  drunkard's 
grave.  Officers  asked  him  about  the  numbers  of 
the  enemy,  and  he  pointed  to  the  leaves  of  the 
trees,  shrieked,  and  ran  for  his  life.  He  ran 
several  days,  and  was  barely  able  to  keep  ahead 
of  St.  Leger's  troops  by  a  neck. 

Burgoyne  at  another  time  sent  a  detachment 
under  Colonel  Baum  to  take  the  stores  at  Ben- 
nington,  Vermont.  He  was  met  by  General  Stark 
and  the  militia.  Stark  said,  "  Here  come  the  red- 
coats, and  we  must  beat  them  to-day,  or  Molly 
Stark  is  a  widow."  This  neat  little  remark  made 
an  instantaneous  hit,  and  when  they  counted  up 


THE  BEGINNING    OF  THE  END.  17  S 

their  string  of  prisoners  at  night  they  found  they 
had  six  hundred  souls  and  a  Hessian. 

Burgoyne  now  felt  blue  and  unhappy.  Besides, 
his  troops  were  covered  with  wood-ticks  and  had 
had  no  washing  done  for  three  weeks. 

He  moved  southward  and  attacked  Gates  at 
Bemis  Heights,  or,  as  a  British  wit  had  it,  "gave 
Gates  ajar,"  near  Saratoga.  A  wavering  fight 
occupied  the  day,  and  then  both  armies  turned  in 
and  fortified  for  two  weeks.  Burgoyne  saw  that 
he  was  running  out  of  food,  and  so  was  first  to 
open  fire. 

Arnold,  who  had  been  deprived  of  his  command 
since  the  last  battle,  probably  to  prevent  his  wiping 
out  the  entire  enemy  and  getting  promoted,  was 
so  maddened  by  the  conflict  that  he  dashed  in 
before  Gates  could  put  him  in  the  guard-house, 
and  at  the  head  of  his  old  command,  and  without 
authority  or  hat,  led  the  attack.  Gates  did  not 
dare  to  come  where  Arnold  was,  to  order  him 
back,  for  it  was  a  very  warm  place  where  Arnold 
was  at  the  time.  The  enemy  was  thus  driven  to 
camp. 

Arnold  was  shot  in  the  same  leg  that  was 
wounded  at  Quebec  ;  so  he  was  borne  back  to 
the  extreme  rear,  where  he  found  Gates  eating  a 
doughnut  and  speaking  disrespectfully  of  Arnold. 

A  council  was  now  held  in  Burgoyne' s  tent, 
and  on  the  question  of  renewing  the  fight  stood 


176         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

six  to  six,  when  an  eighteen-pound  hot  shot  went 
through  the  tent,  knocking  a  stylographic  pen  out 
of  General  Burgoyne's  hand.  Almost  at  once  he 
decided  to  surrender,  and  the  entire  army  of  six 
thousand  men  was  surrendered,  together  with 
arms,  portable  bath-tubs,  and  leather  hat-boxes. 
The  Americans  marched  into  their  camp  to  the 


KNOCKING   A   STYLOGRAPHIC    PEN   OUT   OF   BURGOYNE*S   HAND. 

tune  of  Yankee  Doodle,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
impudent  compositions  ever  composed. 

During  the  Valley  Forge  winter  (1777-78)  Con- 
tinental currency  depreciated  in  value  so  that  an 
officer's  pay  would  not  buy  his  clothes.  Many, 
having  also  spent  their  private  funds  for  the  pros- 
ecution of  the  war,  were  obliged  to  resign  and 
hire  out  in  the  lumber  woods  in  order  to  get 
food  for  their  families.  Troops  had  no  blankets, 


THE  BEGINNING    OF  THE  END.  177 

and  straw  was  not  to  be  had.  It  was  extremely 
sad  ;  but  there  was  no  wavering.  Officers  were 
approached  by  the  enemy  with  from  one  hundred 
to  one  thousand  pounds  if  they  would  accept  and 
use  their  influence  to  effect  a  reconciliation  ;  but, 
with  blazing  eye  and  unfaltering  attitude,  each 
stated  that  he  was  not  for  sale,  and  returned  to 
his  frozen  mud-hole  to  rest  and  dream  of  food  and 
freedom. 

Those  were  the  untitled  nobility  from  whom  we 
sprung.  Let  us  look  over  our  personal  record 
and  see  if  we  are  living  lives  that  are  worthy  of 
such  heroic  sires. 

Five  minutes  will  now  be  given  the  reader  to 
make  a  careful  examination  of  his  personal  record. 


In  the  spring  the  joyful  news  came  across  the 
sea  that,  through  the  efforts  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin, France  had  acknowledged  the  independence 
of  the  United  States,  and  a  fleet  was  on  the  way 
to  assist  the  struggling  troops. 

The  battle  of  Monmouth  occurred  June  28. 
Clinton  succeeded  Howe,  and,  alarmed  by  the 
news  of  the  French  fleet,  the  government  ordered 
Clinton  to  concentrate  his  troops  near  New  York, 
where  there  were  better  facilities  for  getting  home. 

Washington  followed  the  enemy  across  New 
Jersey,  overtaking  them  at  Monmouth.  Lee  was 


1 78          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

in  command,  and  got  his  men  tangled  in  a  swamp 
where  the  mosquitoes  were  quite  plenty,  and, 
losing  courage,  ordered  a  retreat. 

Washington  arrived  at  that  moment,  and  bit- 
terly upbraided  Lee.  He  used  the  Flanders 
method  of  upbraiding,  it  is  said,  and  Lee  could 
not  stand  it.  He  started  towards  the  enemy  in 
preference  to  being  there  with  Washington,  who 
was  still  rebuking  him.  The  fight  was  renewed, 
and  all  day  long  they  fought.  When  night  came, 
Clinton  took  his  troops  with  him  and  went  away 
where  they  could  be  by  themselves. 

An  effort  was  made  to  get  up  a  fight  between 
the  French  fleet  and  the  English  at  Newport  for 
the  championship,  but  a  severe  storm  came  up 
and  prevented  it. 

In  July  the  Wyoming  Massacre,  under  the  man- 
agement of  the  Tories  and  Indians,  commanded 
by  Butler,  took  place  in  that  beautiful  valley  near 
Wilkes  Barre,  Pennsylvania. 

This  massacre  did  more  to  make  the  Indians 
and  Tories  unpopular  in  this  country  than  any 
other  act  of  the  war.  The  men  were  away  in  the 
army,  and  the  women,  children,  and  old  men  alone 
were  left  to  the  vengeance  of  the  two  varieties  of 
savage.  The  Indians  had  never  had  gospel  privi- 
leges, but  the  Tories  had.  Otherwise  they  resem- 
bled each  other. 

In  1779  the  English  seemed  to  have  Georgia 


THE  BEGINNING    OF  THE  END. 


1/9 


and  the  South  pretty  well  to  themselves.  Pre- 
vost,  the  English  general,  made  an  attack  on 
Charleston,  but,  learning  that  Lincoln  was  after 
him,  decided  that,  as  he  had  a  telegram  to  meet  a 
personal  friend  at  Savannah,  he  would  go  there. 
In  September,  Lincoln,  assisted  by  the  French 
under  D'Estaing,  attacked  Savannah.  One  thou- 
sand lives  were  lost,  and  D'Estaing  showed  the 
white  feather  to  advantage.  Count  Pulaski  lost 
his  life  in  this  fight.  He  was  a  brave  Polish 
patriot,  and  his  body  was  buried  in  the  Savannah 
River. 

The  capture  of  Stony  Point  about  this  time  by 
"  Mad  Anthony  Wayne"  was  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  battles  of  the  war. 


THE   ONLY    THING    WAYNE   WAS   AFRAID    OF. 


180          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES 

Learning  the  countersign  from  a  negro  who 
sold  strawberries  to  the  British,  the  troops  passed 
the  guard  over  the  bridge  that  covered  the  marsh, 
and,  gagging  the  worthy  inside  guard,  they 
marched  up  the  hill  with  fixed  bayonets  and  fixed 
the  enemy  to  the  number  of  six  hundred. 

The  countersign  was,  "  The  fort  is  won,"  and  so 
it  was,  in  less  time  than  it  takes  to  ejaculate  the 
word  "  scat !"  Wayne  was  wounded  at  the  out- 
set, but  was  carried  up  the  hill  in  command,  with 
a  bandage  tied  about  his  head.  He  was  a  brave 
man,  and  never  knew  in  battle  what  fear  was. 
Yet,  strange  to  say,  a  bat  in  his  bed  would  make 
him  start  up  and  turn  pale. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 


THE    CLOSE    OF   THE    REVOLUTION. 

THE  atrocities  introduced  into  this  country  by 
the  Tories  and  Indians  caused  General  Sul- 
livan to  go  out  against  the  measly  enemy, 
whip  him  near  Elmira,  and  destroy  the  fields  of 
corn  and  villages  in  the  Genesee  country,  where 
the  Indian  women  were  engaged  in  farming  while 
their  men-folks  attended  to  the  massacre  industry. 
The  weak  point  with  the  Americans  seemed  to 
be  lack  of  a  suitable  navy.  A 
navy  costs  money,  and  the  Colo- 
nists were  poor.  In  1775  they 
fitted  out  several  swift  sailing-ves- 
sels, which  did  good  service.  In- 
side of  five  years  they  captured 
over  five  hundred  ships,  cruised 
among  the  British 
isles,  and  it  is  re- 
ported that  they 
captured  war-ves- 
sels that  were 
tied  to  the  English 
wharves. 


GENERAL  GATES's  PROPER  CAREER. 

16  181 


1 82          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Paul  Jones  had  a  method  of  running  his  vessel 
alongside  the  enemy's,  lashing  the  two  together, 
and  then  having  it  out  with  the  crew,  generally 
winning  in  a  canter.  His  idea  in  lashing  the  two 
ships  together  was  to  have  one  good  ship  to  ride 
home  on.  Generally  it  was  the  one  he  captured, 
while  his  own,  which  was  rotten,  was  allowed  to  go 
down.  This  was  especially  the  case  in  the  fight 
between  the  Richard  and  the  Serapis,  September 

23>  1779- 

In  1780  the  war  was  renewed  in  South  Caro- 
lina. Charleston,  after  a  forty  days'  siege,  was 
forced  to  surrender.  Gates  now  took  charge  of 
the  South,  and  also  gave  a  sprinting  exhibition  at 
Camden,  where  he  was  almost  wiped  off  the  face 
of  the  earth.  He  had  only  two  troops  left  at  the 
close  of  the  battle,  and  they  could  not  keep  up 
with  Gates  in  the  retreat.  This  battle  and  the 
retreat  overheated  Gates  and  sowed  the  seeds  of 
heart-disease,  from  which  he  never  recovered. 
He  should  have  chosen  a  more  peaceful  life,  such^ 
as  the  hen-traffic,  or  the  growth  of  asparagus  for 
the  market. 

Benedict  Arnold  has  been  severely  reproached 
in  history,  but  he  was  a  brave  soldier,  and  possibly 
serving  under  Gates,  who  jealously  kept  him  in 
the  background,  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the 
little  European  dicker  which  so  darkened  his  bril- 
liant career  as  a  soldier. 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE  REVOLUTION. 


ARNOLD  S    RECEPTION   IN    ENGLAND. 


Unhappy  man !  He 
was  not  well  received  in 
England,  and,  though  a 
brilliant  man,  was  forced 

to  sit  in  a  corner  evening  after  evening  and  hear 
the  English  tell  his  humorous  stories  as  their  own. 

The  Carolinas  were  full  of  Tories,  and  oppo- 
sition to  English  rule  was  practically  abandoned  in 
the  South  for  the  time,  with  the  exception  of  that 
made  in  a  desultory  swamp-warfare  by  the  parti- 
san bands  with  such  leaders  as  Marion,  Sumter, 
and  Pickens. 

Two  hundred  thousand  dollars  of  Continental 
money  was  the  sum  now  out.  Forty  dollars  of  it 
would  buy  one  dollar's  worth  of  groceries  ;  but 
the  grocer  had  to  know  the  customer  pretty  well, 
and  even  then  it  was  more  to  accommodate  than 
anything  else  that  he  sold  at  that  price. 

The  British  flooded  the  country  with  a  counter- 
feit that  was  rather  better-looking  than  the  gen- 
uine :  so  that  by  the  time  a  man  had  paid  six 


1 84         HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

hundred  dollars  for  a  pair  of  boots,  and  the 
crooked  bills  had  been  picked  out  and  others 
substituted,  it  made  him  feel  that  starting  a  re- 
public was  a  mighty  unpopular  job. 

General  Arnold  had  married  a  Tory  lady,  and 
lived  in  Philadelphia  while  recovering  from  his 
wounds  received  at  Quebec  and  Saratoga.  He 
was  rather  a  high  roller,  and  ran  behind,  so  that 
it  is  estimated  that  his  bills  there  per  month  re- 
quired a  peach-basket-full  of  currency  with  which 
to  pay  them,  as  the  currency  was  then  quoted. 
Besides,  Gates  had  worried  him,  and  made  him 
think  that  patriotism  was  mostly  politics.  He  was 
also  overbearing,  and  the  people  of  Philadelphia 
mobbed  him  once.  He  was  reprimanded  gently 
by  Washington,  but  Arnold  was  haughty  and  yet 
humiliated.  He  got  command  of  West  Point,  a 
very  important  place  indeed,  and  then  arranged 
with  Clinton  to  swap  it  for  six  thousand  three 
hundred  and  fifteen  pounds  and  a  colonelcy  in 
the  English  army. 

Major  Andre  was  appointed  to  confer  with 
Arnold,  and  got  off  the  ship  Vulture  to  make  his 
way  to  the  appointed  place,  but  it  was  daylight  by 
that  time,  and  the  Vulture,  having  been  fired  on, 
dropped  down  the  river.  Andre  now  saw  no  way 
for  him  but  to  get  back  to  New  York  ;  but  at 
Tarrytown  he  was  met  by  three  patriots,  who 
caught  his  horse  by  the  reins,  and,  though  Andre 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE  REVOLUTION.          185 

tried  to  tip  them,  he  did  not  succeed.  They 
found  papers  on  his  person,  among  them  a  copy 
of  Punch,  which  made  them  suspicious  that  he 
was  not  an  American,  and  so  he  was  tried  and 
hanged  as  a  spy.  This  was  one  of  the  saddest 
features  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  should 
teach  us  to  be  careful  how  we  go  about  in  an 
enemy's  country,  also  to  use  great  care  in  select- 
ing and  subscribing  for  papers. 

In  1781,  Greene,  who  succeeded  Gates,  took 
charge  of  the  two  thousand  ragged  and  bony 
troops.  January  1 7  he  was  attacked  at  Cowpens 
by  Tarleton.  The  militia  fell  back,  and  the 
English  made  a  grand  charge,  supposing  victory 
to  be  within  reach.  But  the  wily  and  foxy  troops 
turned  at  thirty  yards  and  gave  the  undertaking 
business  a  boom  that  will  never  be  forgotten. 

Morgan  was  in  command  of  the  Colonial  forces. 
He  went  on  looking  for  more  regulars  to  kill,  but 
soon  ran  up  against  Cornwallis  the  surrenderee 

General  Greene  now  joined  Morgan,  and  took 
charge  of  the  retreat.  At  the  Yadkin  River  they 
crossed  over  ahead  of  Cornwallis,  when  it  began 
for  to  rain.  When  Cornwallis  came  to  the  river  he 
found  it  so  swollen  and  restless  that  he  decided 
not  to  cross.  Later  he  crossed  higher  up,  and 
made  for  the  fords  of  the  Dan  at  thirty  miles  a 
day,  to  head  off  the  Americans.  Greene  beat 
him,  however,  by  a  length,  and  saved  his  troops. 

1 6* 


1 86          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

The  writer  has  seen  the  place  on  the  Yadkin 
where  Cornwallis  decided  not  to  cross.  It  was 
one  of  the  pivotal  points  of  the  war,  and  is  of 
about  medium  height. 

A  fight  followed  at  Guilford  Court-House,  where 
the  Americans  were  driven  back,  but  the  enemy 
got  thinned  out  so  noticeably  that  Cornwallis 
decided  to  retreat.  He  went  back  to  Washington 
on  a  Bull  Run  schedule,  without  pausing  even  for 
feed  or  water.  Cornwallis  was  greatly  agitated, 
and  the  coat  he  wore  at  the  time,  and  now  shown 
in  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  shows  distinctly  the 
marks  made  where  the  Colonists  played  checkers 
on  the  tail. 

The  battle  of  Eutaw  Springs,  September  8, 
also  greatly  reduced  the  British  forces  at  that 
point. 

Arnold  conducted  a  campaign  into  Virginia,  and 
was  very  brutal  about  it,  killing  a  great  many  peo- 
ple who  were  strangers  to  him,  and  who  had  never 
harmed  him,  not  knowing  him,  as  the  historian 
says,  from  "Adam's  off  ox." 

Cornwallis  in  this  Virginia  and  Southern  trip 
destroyed  ten  million  dollars'  worth  of  property, 
and  then  fortified  himself  at  Yorktown. 

Washington  decided  to  besiege  Yorktown,  and, 
making  a  feint  to  fool  Clinton,  set  out  for  that 
place,  visiting  Mount  Vernon  en  route  after  an 
absence  of  six  and  a  half  years,  though  only 


THE   CLOSE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 


I87 


stopping  two  days.  Washington  was  a  soldier 
in  the  true  sense,  and,  when  a  lad,  was  given  a 
little  hatchet  by  his  father.  George  cut  down 
some  cherry-trees  with  this,  in  order  to  get  the 
cherries  without  climbing  the  trees.  One  day  his 
father  discovered  that  the  trees  had  been  cut 
down,  and  spoke  of  it  to  the  lad. 

"Yes,"  said  George,  "I  did  it  with  my  little 
hatchet ;  but  I  would  rather  cut  down  a  thousand 
cherry-trees  and  tell  the  truth  about  it  than  be 
punished  for  it." 

" Well  said,  my  brave  boy!"  exclaimed  the 
happy  father  as  he  emptied  George's  toy  bank 
into  his  pocket  in  payment 
for  the  trees.  "  You  took 
the  words  right  out  of  my 
mouth." 

In  speaking  of  the  siege 
of  Yorktown,  the  historian 
says,  "The  most  hearty 
good  will  prevailed."  What 
more  could  you  expect  of  a 
siege  than  that  ? 

Cornwallis  capitulated 
October  19.  It  was  the 
most  artistic  capitulation  he 
had  ever  given.  The  troops 
were  arranged  in  two  lines 
facing  each  other,  British 


GEORGE  S    FATHER    TAKING    PAY    FOR    THE 
CHERRY-TREES. 


i88 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


and  American  with  their  allies  the  French  under 
Rochambeau. 

People  came  from  all  over  the  country  who  had 
heard  of  Cornwallis  and  his  wonderful  genius  as 
a  capitulator.     They  came  for  miles,  and  brought 
their  lunches  with  them  ;  but  the  general,  who  felt 
an  unnecessary  pique  towards  Washington, 
refused  to  take  part  in  the  exercises  himself, 

claiming  that  by  the 
advice  of  his  physi- 
cians he  would  have 
to  remain  in  his  tent, 
as  they  feared 
that  he  had  over- 
capitulated  himself 
already.  He  there- 
fore sent  his  sword 
by  General  O'  Hara, 
and  Washington 
turned  it  over  to 
Lincoln,  who  had  been  obliged  to  surrender  to 
the  English  at  Charleston. 

The  news  reached  Philadelphia  in  the  night, 
and  when  the  watchman  cried,  "  Past  two  o'clock, 
and  Cornwallis  is  taken  !"  the  people  arose  and 
went  and  prayed  and  laughed  like  lunatics,  for 
they  regarded  the  war  as  virtually  ended.  The 
old  door-keeper  of  Congress  died  of  delight. 
Thanks  wefe  returned  to  Almighty  God,  and 


CORNWALLIS   SENDING    HIS    SWORD    BY    GENERAL    O  HARA. 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE  REVOLUTION.  189 

George    Washington's    nomination   was    a    sure 
thing. 

England  decided  that  whoever  counselled  war 
any  further  was  a  public  enemy,  and  Lord  North, 
then  prime  minister,  when  he  heard  of  the  sur- 
render of  Cornwallis  through  a  New  York  paper, 
exclaimed,  "  Oh,  God  !  it  is  all  over !" 

Washington  now  showed  his  sagacity  in  quelling 
the  fears  of  the  soldiers  regarding  their  back  pay. 
He  was  invited  to  become  king,  but,  having  had 
no  practice,  and  fearing  that  he  might  run  against 
a  coup  d'etat  or  faux  pas,  he  declined,  and  spoke 
kindly  against  taking  violent  measures. 

In  1783,  September  3,  a  treaty  of  peace  was 
signed  in  Paris,  and  Washington,  delivering  the 
most  successful  farewell  address  ever  penned, 
retired  to  Mount  Vernon,  where  he  began  at  once 
to  enrich  his  farm  with  the  suggestions  he  had 
received  during  his  absence,  and  to  calmly  take 
up  the  life  that  had  been  interrupted  by  the  tedious 
and  disagreeable  war. 

The  country  was  free  and  independent,  but,  oh, 
how  ignorant  it  was  about  the  science  of  govern- 
ment !     The  author  does  not  wish  to  be  personal  1 
when  he  states  that  the  country  at  that  time  did" 
not  know  enough  about  affairs  to  carry  water  for 
a  circus  elephant. 

It  was  heavily  in  debt,  with  no  power  to  raise 
money.  New  England  refused  to  pay*her  poll-tax, 


190         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

and  a  party  named  Shays  directed  his  hired  man 
to  overturn  the  government ;  but  a  felon  broke 
out  on  his  thumb,  and  before  he  could  put  it  down 
the  crisis  was  averted  and  the  country  saved. 


WASHINGTON    BEGAN   AT    ONCE   TO    ENRICH    HIS    FARM. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

THE    FIRST    PRESIDENT. 

IT  now  became  the  duty  of  the  new  republic  to 
seek  out  the  man  to  preside  over  it,  and 
George  Washington  seems  to  have  had  no 
rivals.  He  rather  reluctantly  left  his  home  at 
Mount  Vernon,  where  he  was  engaged  in  trying 
the  rotation  of  crops,  and  solemnly  took  the  oath 
to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  had  been  adopted  September  17,  1787. 
His  trip  in  April,  1789,  from  Mount  Vernon  to 
the  seat  of  government  in  New  York  was  a  sim- 
ple but  beautiful  ovation. 

Everybody  tried  to  make  it  pleasant  for  him. 
He  was  asked  at  all  the  towns  to  build  there,  and 
'most  everybody  wanted  him  "to  come  and  make 
their  house  his  home."  When  he  got  to  the  ferry 
he  was  not  pushed  off  into  the  water  by  com- 
muters, but  lived  to  reach  the  Old  Federal  Hall, 
where  he  was  sworn  in. 

In  I791  the  seat  of  government  was  removed 
to  Philadelphia,  where  it  remained  for  ten  years, 
after  which  the  United  States  took  advantage  of 
the  Homestead  Act  and  located  on  a  tract  of  land 

191 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


ten  miles  square,  known  as  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia. In  1846  that  part  of  the  District  lying 
on  the  Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac  was  ceded 
back  to  the  State, 

President  Washington  did  not  have  to  escape 

from  the  capital  to 
avoid  office-seekers. 
He  could 
get  on  a 
horse  at 
.his  door  and  in 
five  minutes  be 
out  of  sight.  He 
could  remain  in 
the  forest  back  of 
his  house  until 
Martha  blew  the 
horn  signifying 
that  the  man  who 
wanted  the  post- 
office  at  Pigback  had  gone,  and  then  he  could 
return. 

How  times  have  changed  with  the  growth  of 
the  republic  !  Now  Pigback  has  grown  so  that 
the  name  has  been  changed  to  Hogback,  and  the 
President  avails  himself  of  every  funeral  that 
he  can  possibly  feel  an  interest  in,  to  leave  the 
swarm  of  jobless  applicants  who  come  to  pester 
him  to  death  for  appointments. 


MARTHA    BLEW    THE    HORN. 


THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT.  193 

The  historian  begs  leave  to  say  here  that  the 
usefulness  of  the  President  for  the  good  of  his 
country  and  the  consideration  of  greater  questions 
will  some  day  be  reduced  to  very  little  unless  he 
may  be  able  to  avoid  this  effort  to  please  voters 
who  overestimate  their  greatness. 

It  is  said  that  Washington  had  no  library,  which 
accounted  for  his  originality.  He  was  a  vestry- 
man in  the  Episcopal  Church  ;  and  to  'see  his  tall 
and  graceful  form  as  he  moved  about  from  pew  to 
pew  collecting  pence  for  Home  Missions,  was  a 
lovely  sight. 

As  a  boy  he  was  well  behaved  and  a  careful 
student. 

At  one  time  he  was  given  a  hatchet  by  his 
father,  which 

But  what  has  the  historian  to  do  with  this  mor- 
bid wandering  in  search  of  truth  ? 

Things  were  very  much  unsettled.  England 
had  not  sent  a  minister  to  this  country,  and  had 
arranged  no  commercial  treaty  with  us. 

Washington's  Cabinet  consisted  of  three  port- 
folios and  a  rack  in  which  he  kept  his  flute-music. 

The  three  ministers  were  the  Secretary  of  State, 
the  Secretary  of  War,  and  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  There  was  no  Attorney-General,  or 
Postmaster-General,  or  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
or  of  the  Navy,  or  Seed  Catalogue  Secretary. 

Hamilton,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  ad- 

I          n  17 


194         HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

vised  that  Congress  at  the  earliest  moment  pro- 
vide itself  with  a  national  debt,  which  was  done, 
the  war  debt  being  assumed  by  the  Congressional 
representatives  of  the  thirteen  Colonies. 

A  tax  was  levied  on  spirits,  and  a  mint  started, 
combining  the  two,  and  making  the  mint  encour- 
age the  consumption  of  spirits,  and  thus  the  in- 
crease of  the  tax,  very  likely. 

A  Whiskey  Rebellion  broke  out  in  1 794.  Penn- 
sylvania especially  rebelled  at  the  tax  on  this  gro- 
cery, but  it  was  put  down.  (Those  wishing  to 
know  which  was  put  down  will  find  out  by  con- 
sulting the  Appendix,  which  will  be  issued  a  year 
from  this  winter.) 

A  few  Indian  wars  now  kept  the  people  inter- 
ested, and  a  large  number  of  the  red  brothers, 
under  Little  Turtle,  soon  found  themselves  in 
the  soup,  as  Washington  put  it  so  tersely  in  his 
message  the  following  year.  Twenty-five  thou- 
sand square  miles  north  of  the  Ohio  were  obtained 
by  treaty  from  the  Indians. 

England  claimed  that  traffic  with  America  was 
not  desirable,  as  the  Americans  did  not  pay  their 
debts.  Possibly  that  was  true,  for  muskrat  pelts 
were  low  at  that  time,  and  England  refused  to 
take  cord-wood  and  saw-logs  piled  on  the  New 
York  landing  as  cash. 

Chief-Justice  Jay  was  sent  to  London  to  confer 
with  the  king,  which  he  did.  He  was  not  invited, 


THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT.  195 

however,  to  come  to  the  house  during  his  stay, 
and  the  queen  did  not  call  on  Mrs.  Jay.  The 
Jays  have  never  recovered  from  this  snub,  and 
are  still  gently  guyed  by  the  comic  papers. 

But  the  treaty  was  negotiated,  and  now  the 
Americans  are  said  to  pay  their  debts  as  well  as 
the  nobility  who  marry  our  American  girls  instead 
of  going  into  bankruptcy,  as  some  would  do. 

The  Mississippi  and  the  Mediterranean  Sea 
were  opened  for  navigation  to  American  vessels 
now,  and  things  looked  better,  for  we  could  by 
this  means  exchange  our  cranberries  for  sugar  and 
barter  our  Indian  relics  for  camel' s-hair  shawls,  of 
which  the  pioneers  were  very  much  in  need  during 
the  rigorous  winters  in  the  North. 

The  French  now  had  a  difficulty  with  England, 
and  Washington,  who  still  remembered  La  Fayette 
and  the  generous  aid  of  the  French,  wished  that 
he  was  back  at  Mount  Vernon,  working  out  his 
poll-tax  on  the  Virginia  roads,  for  he  was  in  a 
tight  place. 

Ic  was  now  thought  best  to  have  two  political 
parties,  in  order  to  enliven  editorial  thought  and 
expression.  So  the  Republican  party,  headed  by 
Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Randolph,  and  the  Fed- 
eralist party,  led  by  Hamilton  and  Adams,  were 
organized,  and  public  speakers  were  engaged 
from  a  distance. 

The  latter  party  supported  the  administration, 


196 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


— which  was  not  so  much  of  a  job  as  it  has  been 
several  times  since. 

Washington  declined  to  accept  a  third  term, 
and  wrote  a  first-rate  farewell  address.  A  lady, 
whose  name  is  withheld,  writing  of  those  times, 


OIL   THE  GEARING    OF   THE   SOLAR    SYSTEM. 

closes  by  saying  that  President  Washington  was 
one  of  the  sweetest  men  she  ever  knew. 

John  Adams  succeeded  Washington  as  Pres- 
ident, and  did  not  change  his  politics  to  amount 
to  much. 

He  made  a  good  record  as  Congressman,  but 


THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT.  1 97 

lost  it  as  President  largely  because  of  his  egotism. 
He  seemed  to  think  that  if  he  neglected  to  oil  the 
gearing  of  the  solar  system  about  so  often,  it 
would  stop  running.  We  should  learn  from  this 
to  be  humble  even  when  we  are  in  authority. 
Adams  and  Jefferson  were  good  friends  during 
the  Revolution,  but  afterwards  political  differences 
estranged  them  till  they  returned  to  private  life. 
Adams  was  a  poor  judge  of  men,  and  offended 
several  members  of  the  press  who  called  on  him 
to  get  his  message  in  advance. 

Our  country  was  on  the  eve  of  a  war  with 
France,  when  Napoleon  I.  was  made  Consul,  and 
peace  followed. 

Adams's  administration  made  the  Federalists 
unpopular,  owing  to  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws, 
and  Jefferson  was  elected  the  successor  of  Adams, 
Burr  running  as  Vice-President  with  him.  The 
election  was  so  close  that  it  went  to  the  House, 
however. 

Jefferson,  or  the  Sage  of  Monticello,  was  a  good 
President,  noted  for  his  simplicity.  He  married 
and  brought  his  bride  home  to  Monticello  prior  to 
this.  She  had  to  come  on  horseback  about  one 
hundred  miles,  and,  as  the  house  was  unfinished 
and  no  servants  there,  they  had  to  sleep  on  the 
work-bench  and  eat  what  was  left  of  the  carpen- 
ter's lunch. 

Jeffersonian  simplicity  was  his  strong  point,  and 

17* 


198 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


people  who  called  at  the  White  House  often  found 
him  sprinkling  the  floor  of  his  office,  or  trying  to 
start  a  fire  with  kerosene. 

Burr  was  Vice-President,  and,  noticing  at  once 
that  the  office  did  not  attract  any  attention  to 
speak  of,  decided  to  challenge  Mr.  Alexander 
Hamilton  to  fight  a  duel  with  him. 


TRYING   TO   START    A    FIRE   WITH    KEROSENE. 

The  affair  took  place  at  Weehawken,  July  n, 
1804.  Hamilton  fell  at  the  first  fire,  on  the  same 
spot  where  his  eldest  son  had  been  killed  in  the 
same  way. 

The  artist  has  shown  us  how  Burr  and  Hamilton 
should  have  fought,  but,  alas  !  they  were  not  pro- 
gressive men  and  did  not  realize  this  till  too  late. 
Another  method  would  have  been  to  use  the 


THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT.  1 99 

bloodless  method  of  the  French  duel,  or  the 
newspaper  customs  adopted  by  the  pugilists  of 
1893.  The  time  is  approaching  when  mortal  com- 
bat in  America  will  be  confined  to  belligerent 
people  under  the  influence  of  liquor.  A  news- 
paper assault  instead  of  a  duel  might  have  made 
Burr  President  and  Hamilton  Vice-President. 


THE    MODERN    WAY    OF    SETTLING    DIFFERENCES. 

Burr  went  West,  and  was  afterwards  accused 
of  treason  on  the  ground  that  he  was  trying  to 
organize  Mexico  against  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment. He  was  put  in  a  common  jail  to  await 
trial.  Afterwards  he  was  discharged,  but  was 
never  again  on  good  terms  with  the  government, 
and  never  rose  again. 

When  he  came  into  town  and  registered  at  the 
hotel  the  papers  did  not  say  anything  about  it ; 
and  so  he  stopped  taking  them,  thus  falling  into 


200         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

ignorance  and  oblivion  at  the  same  moment,  al- 
though at  one  time  he  had  lacked  but  a  single 
vote  to  make  him  President  of  the  United  States. 
England  and  France  still  continued  at  war,  and 
American  vessels  were  in  hot  water  a  good  deal, 


NOT   TOO    HAUGHTY   TO    HAVE   FUN   SOMETIMES. 

as  they  were  liable  to  be  overhauled  by  both  par- 
ties. England  especially,  with  the  excuse  that  she 
was  looking  for  deserters,  stopped  American  ves- 
sels and  searched  them,  going  through  the  sleep- 
ing-apartments before  the  work  was  done  up, — 


THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT.  2OI 

one  of  the  rudest  things  known  in  international 
affairs. 

An  Embargo  Act  was  passed  forbidding  Amer- 
ican vessels  to  leave  port,  an  act  which  showed 
that  the  bray  of  the  ass  had  begun  to  echo 
through  the  halls  of  legislation  even  at  that 
early  day. 

In  the  mean  time,  Jefferson  had  completed  his 
second  term,  and  James  Madison,  the  Republican 
candidate,  had  succeeded  him  at  the  helm  of  state, 
as  it  was  then  called. 

His  party  favored  a  war  with  England,  especially 
as  the  British  had  begun  again  to  stir  up  the  red 
brother. 

Madison  was  a  Virginian.  He  was  a  man  of 
unblemished  character,  and  was  not  too  haughty 
to  have  fun  sometimes.  This  endeared  him  to  the 
whole  nation.  Unlike  Adams,  he  never  swelled 
up  so  that  his  dignity  hurt  him  under  the  arms. 
He  died  in  1836,  genial  and  sunny  to  the  last. 

It  was  now  thought  best  to  bring  on  the  war  of 
1812,  which  began  by  an  Indian  attack  at  Tippe- 
canoe  on  General  Harrison's  troops  in  1811,  when 
the  Indians  were  defeated.  June  19,  1812,  war 
was  finally  declared. 

The  first  battle  was  between  the  forces  under 
General  Hull  on  our  side  and  the  English  and 
Indians  on  the  British  side,  near  Detroit.  The 
troops  faced  each  other,  Tecumseh  being  the 


2O2 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Indian  leader,  and  both  armies  stood 
ready  to  have  one  of  the  best  battles 
ever  given  in  public  or  private,  when 
General  Hull  was  suddenly  over- 
come with  remorse  at  the  thought 
of  shedding  blood,  especially  among 
people  who  were  so  common,  and, 
shaking  a  large  table-cloth  out  the 
window  in  token  of  peace,  amid  the 
tears  of  his  men,  surrendered  his 
entire  command  in  a  way  that  re- 
minded old  settlers  very  much  of 
Cornwallis. 


SURRENDER    OF   GENERAL   HUIJU 


CHAPTER    XX, 

THE   WAR   WITH    CANADA. 

OCTOBER     13,     General    Van     Rensselaer 
crossed  the  Niagara  River  and  attacked 
the  British  at  Queenstown  Heights.     The 
latter  retreated,  and  General   Brock  was  killed. 
General  Van  Rensselaer  went  back  after  the  rest 
of  his  troops,  but  they  refused  to  cross,   on  the 
ground  that  the  general  had  no  right  to  take  them 
out  of  the  United   States,  and  thus  the  troops 
left  in  charge  at  the  Heights  were  compelled  to 
surrender. 

These  troops  who  refused  to  go  over  and  accept 
a  victory  already  won  for  them,  because  they 
didn't  want  to  cross  the  Canadian  line,  would  not 
have  shied  so  at  the  boundary  if  they  had  been 
boodlers,  very  likely,  in  later  years. 

August  19  occurred  the  naval  fight  between  the 
Constitution  and  Guerriere,  off  the  Massachusetts 
coast.  The  Constitution,  called  "  Old  Ironsides," 
was  commanded  by  Captain  Isaac  Hull.  The 
Guerriere  was  first  to  attack,  but  got  no  reply 
until  both  vessels  were  very  close  together,  when 
into  her  starboard  Captain  Hull  poured  such  a 

203 


204         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

load  of  hardware  that  the  Guerriere  was  soon 
down  by  the  head  and  lop-sided  on  the  off  side. 
She  surrendered,  but  was  of  no  value,  being  so 
full  of  holes  that  she  would  not  hold  a  cargo  of 
railroad-trestles. 


IF  THEY    HAD    BEEN    BOODLERS. 


The  economy  used  by  the  early  American  war- 
riors by  land  and  sea  regarding  their  ammunition, 
holding  their  fire  until  the  enemy  was  at  arm's 
length,  was  the  cause  of  more  than  one  victory. 
They  were  obliged,  indeed,  to  make  every  bullet 
count  in  the  days  when  even  lead  was  not  pro- 
duced here,  and  powder  was  imported. 

October  13,  the  naval  fight  between  the  Frolic 
and  Wasp  took  place,  off  the  North  Carolina 
coast.  .  The  Frolic  was  an  English  brig,  and  she 
wound  up  as  most  frolics  do,  with  a  severe  pain 


THE    WAR    WITH  CANADA. 

and  a  five-dollar  fine.  After  the  Wasp  had  called 
and  left  her  R.  S.  V.  P.  cards,  the  decks  of  the 
Frolic  were  a  sight  to  behold.  There  were  not 
enough  able-bodied  men  to  surrender  the  ship. 
She  was  captured  by  the  boarding-crew,  but  there 
was  not  a  man  left  of  her  own  crew  to  haul  down 
the  colors. 

Other  victories  followed  on  the  sea,  and  Amer- 
ican privateers  had  more  fun  than  anybody. 

Madison  was  re-elected,  thus  showing  that  his 
style  of  administration  suited  one  and  all,  and  the 
war  was  prosecuted  at  a  great  rate.  It  became  a 
sort  of  fight  with  Canada,  the  latter  being  sup- 
ported by  English  arms  by  land  and  sea.  Of 
course  the  Americans  would  have  preferred  to 
fight  England  direct,  and  many  were  in  favor  of 
attacking  London ;  but  when  the  commanding 
officer  asked  those  of  the  army  who  had  the 
means  to  go  abroad  to  please  raise  their  right 
hands,  it  was  found  that  the  trip  must  be  aban- 
doned. Those  who  had  the  means  to  go  did  not 
have  suitable  clothes  for  making  a  respectable 
appearance,  and  so  it  was  given  up. 

Three  divisions  were  made  of  the  army,  all 
having  an  attack  on  Canada  as  the  object  in  view, 
— viz.,  the  army  of  the  Centre,  the  army  of  the 
North,  and  the  army  of  the  West.  The  armies 
of  the  Centre  and  North  did  not  do  much,  aside 
from  the  trifling  victory  at  York,  and  President 

18 


206         HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 


Madison  said  afterwards  in  a  letter  to  the  writer's 
family  that  the  two  armies  did  not  accomplish 
enough  to  pay  the  duty  on  them.  The  army  of 
the  West  managed  to  stand  off  the  British,  though 
the  latter  still  held  Michigan  and  threatened  Ohio. 
September  10,  Perry's  victory  on  Lake  Erie 
occurred,  and  was  well  received.  Perry  was 
twenty-seven  years  old,  and  was  given  command 
of  a  flotilla  on  Lake  Erie,  provided  he  would  cut 
the  timber  and  build  it,  meantime  boarding  him- 
self. The  British  had  long  been  in  possession  of 
Lake  Erie,  and  when  Perry  got  his  scows  afloat 
they  issued  invitations  for  a  general  display  of 
carnage.  They  bore  down  on  Perry  and  killed 
all  the  men  on  his  flag-ship  but  eight.  Then  he 
helped  them  fire  the  last 
gun,  and  with  the  flag 
they  jumped 
into  a  boat 
which  they 
paddled  for 


BUILDING    THE    FLEET,    MEANTIME    BOARDING    HIMSELF. 


THE    WAR    WITH  CANADA.  2O? 

the  Niagara  under  a  galling  fire.  This  was  the 
first  time  that  a  galling  fire  had  ever  been  used  at 
sea.  Perry  passed  within  pistol-shot  of  the  Brit- 
ish, and  in  less  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  he 
trod  the  poop  of  the  Niagara  he  was  able  to  write 
to  General  Harrison,  "  We  have  met  the  enemy, 
and  they  are  ours.'r 

Proctor  and  Tecumseh  were  at  Maiden,  with 
English  and  Indians,  preparing  to  plunder  the 
frontier  and  kill  some  more  women  and  children 
as  soon  as  they  felt  rested  up.  At  the  news  of 
Perry's  victory,  Harrison  decided  to  go  over  and 
stir  them  up.  Arriving  at  Maiden,  he  found  it 
deserted,  and  followed  the  foe  to  the  river 
Thames,  where  he  charged  with  his  Kentucky 
horsemen  right  through  the  British  lines  and  so 
on  down  the  valley,  where  they  reformed  and 
started  back  to  charge  on  their  rear,  when  the 
whole  outfit  surrendered  except .  the  Indians. 
Proctor,  however,  was  mounted  on  a  tall  fox- 
hunter  which  ran  away  with  him.  He  afterwards 
wrote  back  to  General  Harrison  that  he  made 
every  effort  to  surrender  personally,  but  that  cir- 
cumstances prevented.  He  was  greatly  pained 
by  this. 

The  Americans  now  charged  on  the  Indians, 
and  Johnson,  the  commander  of  the  Blue  Grass 
Dragoons,  fired  a  shot  which  took  Tecumseh  just 
west  of  the  watch-pocket.  He  died,  he  said, 


208 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


tickled  to  death  to  know  that  he  had  been  shot 
by  an  American. 

Captain  Lawrence,  of  the  Hornet,  having  taken 
the  British  brig  Peacock,  was  given  command  of 
the  Chesapeake,  which  he  took  to  Boston  to  have 
repaired.  While  there,  he  got  a  challenge  from 


PROCTOR   ON   A  TALL   FOX-HUNTER    WHICH    RAN   AWAY   WITH    HIM. 


the  Shannon.  He  put  to  sea  with  half  a  crew, 
and  a  shot  in  his  chest — that  is,  the  arm-chest  of 
the  ship — burst  the  whole  thing  open  and  annoyed 
ever}7  one  on  board.  The  enemy  boarded  the 
Chesapeake  and  captured  her,  so  Captain  Law- 
rence, her  brave  commander,  breathed  his  last, 
after  begging  his  men  not  to  give  up  the  ship. 
However,  the  victories  on  the  Canadian  border 


THE    WAR    WITH  CANADA.  2Og 

settled  the  war  once  more  for  the  time,  and 
cheered  the  Americans  very  much. 

The  Indians  in  1813  fell  upon  Fort  Mimms  and 
massacred  the  entire  garrison,  men,  women,  and 
children,  not  because  they  felt  a  personal  antipathy 
towards  them,  but  because  they — the  red  brothers 
— had  sold  their  lands  too  low  and  their  hearts 
were  sad  in  their  bosoms.  There  is  really  no  fun 
in  trading  with  an  Indian,  for  he  is  devoid  of  busi- 
ness instincts,  and  reciprocity  with  the  red  brother 
has  never  been  a  success. 

General  Jackson  took  some  troops  and  attacked 
the  red  brother,  killing  six  hundred  of  him  and 
capturing  the  rest  of  the  herd.  Jackson  did  not 
want  to  hear  the  Indians  speak  pieces  and  see 
them  smoke  the  pipe  of  peace,  but  buried  the 
dead  and  went  home.  He  had  very  little  of  the 
romantic  complaint  which  now  and  then  breaks 
out  regarding  the  Indian,  but  knew  full  well  that 
all  the  Indians  ever  born  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
could  not  compensate  for  the  cruel  and  violent 
death  of  one  good,  gentle,  patient  American 
mother. 

Admiral  Cockburn  now  began  to  pillage  the 
coast  of  the  Southern  States  and  borrow  com- 
munion services  from  the  churches  of  Virginia 
and  the  Carolinas.  He  also  murdered  the  sick 
in  their  beds. 

Perhaps  a  word  of  apology  is  due  the  Indians 


210          HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

after  all.  Possibly  they  got  their  ideas  from 
Cockburn. 

The  battle  of  Lundy's  Lane  had  been  arranged 
for  July  25,  1814,  and  so  the  Americans  crossed 
Niagara  under  General  Brown  to  invade  Canada. 
General  Winfield  Scott  led  the  advance,  and  gained 
a  brilliant  victory,  July  5,  at  Chippewa.  The  sec- 
ond engagement  was  at  Lundy's  Lane,  within  the 
sound  of  the  mighty  cataract.  Old  man  Lundy, 
whose  lane  was  used  for  the  purpose,  said  that  it 
was  one  of  the  bloodiest  fights,  by  a  good  many 
gallons,  that  he  ever  attended.  The  battle  was, 
however,  barren  of  results,  the  historian  says, 
though  really  an  American  victory  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  tactician  and  professional  gore-spiller. 

In  September,  Sir  George  Prevost  took  twelve 
thousand  veteran  troops  who  had  served  under 
Wellington,  and  started  for  Plattsburg.  The 
ships  of  the  British  at  the  same  time  opened  fire 
on  the  nine-dollar  American  navy,  and  were  almost 
annihilated.  The  troops  under  Prevost  started  in 
to  fight,  but,  learning  of  the  destruction  of  the 
British  fleet  on  Lake  Champlain,  Prevost  fled  like 
a  frightened  fawn,  leaving  his  sick  and  wounded 
and  large  stores  of  lime-juice,  porridge,  and  plum- 
pudding.  The  Americans,  who  had  been  living 
on  chopped  horse-feed  and  ginseng-root,  took  a 
week  off  and  gave  themselves  up  to  the  false  joys 
of  lime-juice  and  general  good  feeling. 


THE    WAR    WITH  CANADA. 


211 


Along  the  coast  the  British  destroyed  every- 
thing they  could  lay  their  hands  on  ;  but  perhaps 
the  rudest  thing  they  did  was  to  enter  Wash- 
ington and  burn  the  Capitol,  the  Congressional 
library,  and  the  smoke-house  in  which  President 
Madison  kept  his  hams.  Even  now,  when  the 
writer  is  a  guest  of  some  great  English  dignitary, 
and  perhaps  at  table  picking  the  "  merry- thought" 
of  a  canvas-back  duck,  the  memory  of  this  thing 
comes  over  him,  and,  burying  his  face  in  the  costly 
napery,  he  gives  himself  up  to  grief 
until  kind  words  and  a  celery-glass- 
full  of  turpentine,  or  something,  bring 
back  his  buoyancy  and  rainbow 
smile.  The  hospitality  and  generous 
treatment  of  our  English  brother  to 
Americans  now  is  something  beauti- 
ful, unaffected,  and  well  worth  a  voyage 
across  the  qualmy  sea  to  see,  but  when 
Cockburn  burned  down  the  Capitol  and 
took  the  President's  sugar-cured  hams 
he  did  a  rude  act. 


HIS   RAINBOW    SMILE. 


CHAPTER    XXL 

THE    ADVANCE    OF   THE    REPUBLIC. 

THE  administration  now  began  to  suffer  at  the 
hands  of  the  people,  many  of  whom  criti- 
cised the  conduct  of  the  war  and  that  of  the 
President  also.  People  met  at  Hartford  and  spoke 
so  harshly  that  the  Hartford  Federalist  obtained  a 
reputation  which  clung  to  him  for  many  years. 

There  being  no  cable  in  those  days,  the  peace 
by  Treaty  of  Ghent  was  not  heard  of  in  time  to 
prevent  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  January  8, 
1815,  there  having  been  two  weeks  of  peace  as  a 
matter  of  fact  when  this  hot  and  fatal  battle  was 
fought. 

General  Pakenham,  with  a  force  of  twelve  thou- 
sand men  by  sea  and  land,  attacked  the  city.  The 
land  forces  found  General  Jackson  intrenched 
several  miles  below  the  city.  He  had  used  cotton 
for  fortifications  at  first,  but  a  hot  shot  had  set  a 
big  bunch  of  it  on  fire  and  rolled  it  over  towards 
the  powder-supplies,  so  that  he  did  not  use  cotton 
any  more. 

General  Pakenham  was  met  by  the  solid  pha- 
lanx of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  riflemen,  who 

212 


THE  ADVANCE   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.         213 

reserved  their  fire,  as  usual,  until  the  loud  uniform 
of  the  English  could  be  distinctly  heard,  when  they 
poured  into  their  ranks  a  galling  fire,  as  it  was  so 
tersely  designated  at  the  time.  General  Paken- 
ham  fell  mortally  wounded,  and  his  troops  were 
repulsed,  but  again  rallied,  only  to  be  again  re- 
pulsed. This  went  on  until  night,  when  General 
Lambert,  who  succeeded  General  Pakenham,  with- 
drew, hopelessly  beaten,  and  with  a  loss  of  over 
two  thousand  men. 

The  United  States  now  found  that  an  honor- 
able peace  had  been  obtained,  and  with  a  debt 
of  $127,000,000  started  in  to  pay  it  up  by  instal- 
ments, which  was  done  inside  of  twenty  years  from 
the  ordinary  revenue. 

In  the  six  years  following,  one  State  per  year 
was  added  to  the  Union,  and  all  kinds  of  manu- 
factures were  built  up  to  supply  the  goods  that 
had  been  cut  off  by  the  blockade  during  the  war. 
Even  the  deluge  of  cheap  goods  from  abroad 
after  the  war  did  not  succeed  in  breaking  these 
down. 

James  Monroe  was  almost  unanimously  elected. 
He  was  generally  beloved,  and  his  administration 
was,  in  fact,  known  as  the  original  "era  of  good 
feeling,"  since  so  successfully  reproduced  espe- 
cially by  the  Governors  of  North  and  South 
Carolina.  (See  Appendix.) 

Through  the  efforts  of  Henry  Clay,   Missouri 


214         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

was  admitted  as  a  slave  State  in  1821,  under  the 
compromise  that  slavery  should  not  be  admitted 
into  any  of  the  Territories  west  of  the  Mississippi 
and  north  of  parallel  36°  30'  N. 

Clay  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  his  time, 
and  was  especially  eminent  as  an  eloquent  and 
magnetic  speaker  in  the  days  when  the  record  for 
eloquence  was  disputed  by  the  giants  of  American 
oratory,  and  before  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  had  become  a  wealthy  club  of  men  whose 
speeches  are  rarely  printed  except  at  so  much  per 
column,  paid  in  advance. 

Clay  was  the  original  patentee  of  the  slogan  for 
campaign  use. 

Lafayette  revisited  this  country  in  1819,  and 
was  greeted  with  the  greatest  hospitality.  He 
visited  the  grave  of  Washington,  and  tenderly 
spoke  of  the  grandeur  of  character  shown  by  his 
chief. 

He  was  given  the  use  of  the  Brandywine,  a 
government  ship,  for  his  return.  As  he  stood  on 
the  deck  of  the  vessel  at  Pier  i,  North  River,  his 
mind  again  recurred  to  Washington,  and  to  those 
on  shore  he  said  that  "  to  show  Washington's  love 
of  truth,  even  as  a  child,  he  could  tell  an  interest- 
ing incident  of  him  relating  to  a  little  new  hatchet 
given  him  at  the  time  by  his  father."  As  he 
reached  this  point  in  his  remarks,  Lafayette  noted 
'  with  surprise  that  some  one  had  slipped  his  cable 


THE  ADVANCE   OF  THE  REPUBLIC.          215 

from  shore  and  his  ship  was  gently  shoved  off  by  \ 
people  on  the  pier,  while  his  voice  was  drowned  ) 
in  the  notes  of  the  New  York  Oompah  Oompah  i 
Band  as  it  struck  up  "Johnny,  git  yer  Gun." 

Florida  was  ceded  to  the  United  States  in  the 
same  year  by  Spain,  and  was  sprinkled  over  with 
a  light  coating  of  sand  for  the  waves  to  monkey 
with.  The  Everglades  of  Florida  are  not  yet 
under  cultivation. 

Mr.  Monroe  became  the  author  of  what  is  now 
called  the  "Monroe  doctrine," — viz.,  that  the  ef- 
fort of  any  foreign  country  to  obtain  dominion  in 
America  would  thereafter  and  forever  afterwards 
be  regarded  as  an  unfriendly  act.  Rather  than 
be  regarded  as  unfriendly,  foreign  countries  now 
refrain  from  doing  their  dominion  or  dynasty  work 
here. 

The  Whigs  now  appeared,  and  the  old  Repub- 
lican party  became  known  as  the  Democratic 
party.  John  Quincy  Adams  and  Henry  Clay 
were  Whigs,  and  John  C.  Calhoun  and  Andrew 
Jackson  were  Democrats.  The  Whigs  favored  a 
high  protective  tariff  and  internal  improvement. 
The  Democrats  did  not  favor  anything  especially, 
but  bitterly  opposed  the  Whig  measures,  whatever 
they  were. 

In  1825,  John  Quincy  Adams,  son  of  John 
Adams,  was  elected  President,  and  served  one 
term.  He  was  a  bald-headed  man,  and  the  coun- 


2l6         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


try  was  given  four  years  of  unex- 
ampled prosperity.  Yet  this  ex- 
perience has  not  been  regarded 
people  as  it  should  have 
been.  Other  kinds  of 
men  have  repeatedly 
been  elected  to  that 
office,  only  to  bring 
sorrow,  war,  debt, 
and  bank-failures 
upon  us.  Some- 
times it  would  seem 
to  the  thinking  mind 
that,  as  a  people,  we 
need  a  few  car-loads 
of  sense  in  each 
school-district,  where 
it  can  be  used  at  a 
moment's  notice. 
Adams  was  not  re-elected,  on  account  of  his 
tariff  ideas,  which  were  not  popular  at  the  South. 
He  was  called  "The  old  man  eloquent,"  and  it  is 
said  that  during  his  more  impassioned  passages 
his  head,  which  was  round  and  extremely  smooth, 
became  flushed,  so  that,  from  resembling  the  cue- 
ball  on  the  start,  as  he  rose  to  more  lofty  heights 
his  dome  of  thought  looked  more  like  the  spot 
ball  on  a  billiard-table.  No  one  else  in  Congress 
at  that  time  had  succeeded  in  doing  this. 


BALD-HEADED    MEN    NOT    APPRECIATED. 


THE  ADVANCE   OF  THE  REPUBLIC,          2 17 

John  Quincy  Adams  was  succeeded  in  1829  by 
Andrew  Jackson,  the  hero  of  New  Orleans. 
Jackson  was  the  first  to  introduce  what  he  called 
"  rotation  in  office."  During  the  forty  years  pre- 
vious there  had  been  but  seventy-four  removals  ; 
Jackson  made  seven  hundred.  This  custom  has 
been  pretty  generally  adopted  since,  giving  im- 
mense satisfaction  to  those  who  thrive  upon  the 
excitement  of  offensive  partisanship  and  their 
wives'  relations,  while  those  who  have  legitimate 
employment  and  pay  taxes  support  and  educate 
a  new  official  kindergarten  with  every  change  of 
administration. 

The  prophet  sees  in  the  distance  an  eight-year 
term  for  the  President,  and  employment  thereafter 
as  "  charge-d' affaires"  of  the  United  States,  with 
permission  to  go  beyond  the  seas.  Thus  the  vast 
sums  of  money  and  rivers  of  rum  used  in  the 
intervening  campaigns  at  present  will  be  used  for 
the  relief  of  the  widow  and  orphan.  The  ex- 
President  then,  with  the  portfolio  of  International 
Press  Agent  for  the  United  States,  could  go 
abroad  and  be  feted  by  foreign  governments, 
leaving  dyspepsia  everywhere  in  his  wake  and 
crowned  heads  with  large  damp  towels  on  them. 

Every  ex-President  should  have  some  place 
where  he  could  go  and  hide  his  shame.  A  trip 
around  the  world  would  require  a  year,  and  by 
that  time  the  voters  would  be  so  disgusted  with 

K  19 


218         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES, 

the  new  President  that  the  old  one  would  come 
like  a  healing  balm,  and  he  would  be  permitted  to 
die  without  publishing-  a  bulletin  of  his  temper- 
ature and  showing  his  tongue  to  the  press  for 
each  edition  of  the  paper. 

South  Carolina  in  1832  passed  a  nullification  act 
declaring  the  tariff  act  "  null  and  void"  and  an- 
nouncing that  the  State  would  secede  from  the 
Union  if  force  'were  used  to  collect  any  revenue 
at  Charleston.  South  Carolina  has  always  been 
rather  "advanced"  regarding  the  matter  of  seced- 
ing from  the  American  Union. 

President  Jackson,  however,  ordered  General 
Scott  and  a  number  of  troops  to  go  and  see 
that  the  laws  were  enforced  ;  but  no  trouble 
resulted,  and  soon  more  satisfactory  measures 
were  enacted,  through  the  large  influence  of  Mr. 
Clay. 

Jackson  was  unfriendly  to  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  bank  retaliated  by  con- 
tracting its  loans,  thus  making  money-matters 
hard  to  get  hold  of  by  the  masses. 

"When  the  public  money,"  says  the  historian, 
"  which  had  been  withdrawn  from  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  was  deposited  in  local  banks,  money 
was  easy  and  speculation  extended  to  every  branch 
of  trade.  New  cities  were  laid  out ;  fabulous  prices 
were  charged  for  building-lots  which  existed  only 
on  paper  "  etc.  And  in  Van  Buren's  time  the 


THE  ADVANCE   OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 


219 


people  paid   the  violinist,  as  they  have  in   1893, 
with  ruin  and  remorse. 

Speculation  which  is  unprofitable  should  never 
be  encouraged.  Unprofitable  speculation  is  only 
another  term  for  idiocy.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
profitable  speculation  leads  to  prosperity,  public 
esteem,  and  the  ability  to  keep  a  team.  We  may 
distinguish  the  one  from  the  other  by  means  of 
ascertaining  the  difference  between  them.  If  one 
finds  on  waking  up  in  the  morning  that  he  ex- 
periences a  sensation  of  being  in  the  poor-house, 
he  may  almost  at  once  jump  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  kind  of  speculation  he  selected  was  the 
wrong  one. 

The  Black  Hawk  War  occurred  in  the  North- 
west Territory  in  1832.  It  grew  out  of  the  fact 
that  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  sold  their 
lands  to  the  United  States 


and 


afterwards  regretted 
that  they  had  not 
asked  more  for  them  : 
so  they  refused  to  va- 
cate, until  several  of 
them  had  been  used 
up  on  the  asparagus- 
beds  of  the  husband- 
man. 

The  Florida  War 


(l835) 


out  of 


SCALPING    A    MAN    BETWEEN    THE    SOUP    AND    THE    KEMOVH. 


220         HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  fact  that  the  Seminoles  regretted  having  made 
a  dicker  with  the  government  at  too  low  a  price 
for  land.  Osceola,  the  chief,  regretted  the  mat- 
ter so  much  that  he  scalped  General  Thompson 
while  the  latter  was  at  dinner,  which  shows  that 
the  Indian  is  not  susceptible  to  cultivation  or  the 
acquisition  of  any  knowledge  of  table  etiquette 
whatever.  What  could  be  in  poorer  taste  than 
scalping  a  man  between  the  soup  and  the  remove  ? 
The  same  day  Major  Dade  with  one  hundred 
men  was  waylaid,  and  all  but  four  of  the  party 
killed. 

Seven  years  later  the  Indians  were  subdued. 

Phrenologically  the  Indian  allows  his  alimentive- 
ness  to  overbalance  his  group  of  organs  which 
show  veneration,  benevolence,  fondness  for  so- 
ciety, fetes  champetres,  etc.,  hope,  love  of  study, 
fondness  for  agriculture,  an  unbridled  passion  for 
toil,  etc. 

France  owed  five  million  dollars  for  damages  to 
our  commerce  in  Napoleon's  wars,  and,  Napoleon 
himself  being  entirely  worthless,  having  said 
every  time  that  the  bill  was  presented  that  he 
would  settle  it  as  soon  as  he  got  back  from  St. 
Helena,  Jackson  ordered  reprisals  to  be  made,  but 
England  acted  as  a  peacemaker,  and  the  bill  was 
paid.  On  receiving  the  money  a  trunk  attached 
by  our  government  and  belonging  to  Napoleon 
was  released. 


THE  ADVANCE  OF   THE  REPUBLIC.          221 

Space  here,  and  the  nature  of  this  work,  forbid 
an  extended  opinion  regarding  the  course  pursued 
by  Napoleon  in  this  matter.  His  tomb  is  in  the 
basement  of  the  Hotel  des  Invalides  in  Paris,  and 
you  are  requested  not  to  fumer  while  you  are 
there. 


FITTED    IN    PARIS    AT   GREAT    EXPENSE. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

MORE    DIFFICULTIES    STRAIGHTENED    OUT. 

VAN  BUREN,  the  eighth  President,  was  un- 
fortunate in  taking  the  helm  as  the  finan- 
cial cyclone  struck  the  country.     This  was 
brought   about   by  scarcity  of  funds    more    than 
anything  else.     Business-men  would  not  pay  their 
debts,  and,  though  New  York  was  not  then  so 
large  as  at.  present,  one  hundred  million  dollars 
were  lost  in  sixty  days  in  this  way. 

The  government  had  required  the  payments  for 
public  lands  to  be  made  in  coin,  and  so  the  Treas- 
ury had  plenty  of  gold  and  silver,  while  business 
had  nothing 'to  work  with.  Speculation  also  had 


222 


MORE  DIFFICULTIES  STRAIGHTENED    OUT.     22$ 


made  a  good  many  snobs  who  had  sent  their  gold 
and  silver  abroad  for  foreign  luxuries,  also  some 
paupers  who  could  not  do  so.  When  a  man  made 
some  money  from  the  sale  of  rural  lots  he  had  his 
hats  made  abroad,  and  his  wife  had  her  dresses 
fitted  in  Paris  at  great  expense.  Confidence  was 
destroyed,  and  the  air  was  heavy  with  failures  and 
apprehension  of  more  failures  to  come. 

The  Canadians  rebelled  against  England,  and 
many  of  our  people  wanted  to  unite  with  Canada 
against  the  mother-country,  but  the  police  would 
not  permit  them  to  do  so.  General  Scott  was 
sent  to  the  frontier  to  keep  our  people  from  aiding 
the  Canadians. 

There  was  trouble  in  the 
Northeast  over  the 
boundary  between 
Maine    and    New 


LORD    ASHBURTON    AND    DANIEL    WEBSTER. 


224         HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Brunswick,  but  it  was  settled  by  the  commis- 
sioners, Daniel  Webster  and  Lord  Ashburton. 
Webster  was  a  smart  man  and  a  good  extempo- 
raneous speaker. 

Van  Buren  failed  of  a  re-election,  as  the  people 
did  not  fully  endorse  his  administration.  Admin- 
istrations are  not  generally  endorsed  where  the 
people  are  unable  to  get  over  six  pounds  of  sugar 
for  a  dollar. 

General  Harrison,  who  followed  in  1841,  died 
soon  after  choosing  his  Cabinet,  and  his  Vice- 
President,  John  Tyler,  elected  as  a  Whig,  pro- 
ceeded to  act  as  President,  but  not  as  a  Whig 
President  should.  His  party  passed  a  bill  estab- 
lishing the  United  States  Bank,  but  Tyler  vetoed 
it,  and  the  men  who  elected  him  wished  they  had 
been  as  dead  as  Rameses  was  at  the  time. 

Dorr's  justly  celebrated  rebellion  in  Rhode 
Island  was  an  outbreak  resulting  from  restricting 
the  right  of  suffrage  to  those  who  owned  prop- 
erty. A  new  Constitution  was  adopted,  and  Dorr 
chosen  as  Governor.  He  was  not  recognized,  and 
so  tried  to  capture  the  seat  while  the  regular 
governor  was  at  tea.  He  got  into  jail  for  life, 
but  was  afterwards  pardoned  out  and  embraced 
the  Christian  religion. 

In  1844  the  Anti-Rent  War  in  the  State  of  New 
York  broke  out  among  those  who  were  tenants 
of  the  old  "Patroon  Estates."  These  men,  dis- 


MORE  DIFFICULTIES  STRAIGHTENED    OUT.     22$ 

guised  as  Indians,  tarred  and  feathered  those  who 
paid  rent,  and  killed  the  collectors  who  were  sent 
to  them.  In  1846  the  matter  was  settled  by  the 
military. 

In  1840  the  Mormons  had  settled  at  Nauvoo, 
Illinois.  They  were  led  by  Joseph  Smith,  and  not 
only  proposed  to  run  a  new  kind  of  religion,  but 


TARRED  AND  FEATHERED  FOR  PAYING  RENT. 

introduced  polygamy  into  it.  The  people  who 
lived  near  them  attacked  them,  killed  Smith,  and 
drove  the  Mormons  to  Iowa,  opposite  Omaha. 

In  1844  occurred  the  building  of  the  magnetic 
telegraph,  invented  by  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse.  The 
line  was  from  Baltimore  to  Washington,  or  vice 
versa, — authorities  failing  to  agree  on  this  matter. 
It  cost  thirty  thousand  dollars,  and  the  boys  who 

P 


226         HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 


delivered  the   messages   made   more  out  of  it 

then  than  the  stockholders  did. 

Fulton  having  invented  and  perfected  the 
steamboat  in  1805  and 
*  started  the  Clermont  on 
the  North  River  at  the  dizzy 
rate  of  five  miles  per  hour, 
and  George  Stephenson  hav- 
ing in  1814  made  the  first 
locomotive  to  run  on  a  track, 
the  people  began  to  feel  that 
theosophy  was  about  all  they 
needed  to  place  them  on  a 


THE   MESSENGER-BOYS   MADE   MORE   OUT   OF   IT 
THAN   THE   STOCKHOLDERS. 


with      tllC 

other  astral  bodies. 

Texas  had,  under  the  guidance  of  Sam  Hous- 
ton, obtained  her  independence  from  Mexico,  and 
asked  for  admission  to  the  Union.  Congress  at 
first  rejected  her,  fearing  that  the  Texas  people 
lacked  cultivation,  being  so  far  away  from  the 
thought-ganglia  of  the  East,  also  fearing  a  war 
with  Mexico  ;  but  she  was  at  last  admitted,  and 
now  every  one  is  glad  of  it. 

The  Whigs  were  not  in  favor  of  the  admission 
of  Texas,  and  made  that  the  issue  of  the  follow- 
ing campaign,  Henry  Clay  leading  his  party  to  a 
hospitable  grave  in  the  fall.  James  K.  Polk,  a 
Democrat,  was  elected.  His  rallying  cry  was,  "I 
am  a  Democrat." 


MORE  DIFFICULTIES  STRAIGHTENED    OUT.     22? 

The  Mexican  War  now  came  on.  General 
Taylor's  army  met  the  enemy  first  at  Palo  Alto, 
where  he  ran  across  the  Mexicans  six  thousand 
strong*  and,  though  he  had  but  two  thousand  men, 
drove  them  back,  only  losing  nine  men.  This 
was  the  most  economical  battle  of  the  war. 

The  next  afternoon  he  met  the  enemy  at  Resaca 
de  la  Palma,  and  whipped  him  in  the  time  usually 
required  to  ejaculate  the  word  "  scat !" 

Next  General  Taylor  proceeded  against  Mon- 
terey, September  24,  and  with  six  thousand  men 
attacked  the  strongly-fortified  city,  which  held  ten 
thousand  troops.  The  Americans  avoided  the 
heavy  fire  as  well  as  possible  by  entering  the  city 
and  securing  rooms  at  the  best  hotel,  leaving 
word  at  the  office  that  they  did  not  wish  to  be 
disturbed  by  the  enemy.  In  fact,  the  soldiers  did 
dig  their  way  through  from  house  to  house  to 
avoid  the  volleys  from  the  windows,  and  thus 
fought  to  within  a  square  of  the  Grand  Plaza, 
when  the  city  surrendered.  The  Grand  Plaza  is 
generally  a  sandy  vacant  lot,  where  Mexicans  sell 
tamales  made  of  the  highly-peppered  but  tempting 
cutlets  of  the  Mexican  hairless  dog. 

The  battle  of  Buena  Vista  took  place  February 
23,  1847,  General  Santa  Anna  commanding  the 
Mexicans.  He  had  twenty  thousand  men,  and 
General  Taylor's  troops  were  reduced  in  num- 
bers. The  fight  was  a  hot  one,  lasting  all  day, 


228 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


and  the  Americans  were  saved  by  Bragg' s  artil- 
lery. Bragg  used  the  old  Colonial  method  of 
rolling  his  guns  up  to  the  nose  of  the  enemy  and 
then  discharging  an  iron-foundry  into  his  midst. 
This  disgusted  the  enemy  so  that  General  Santa 
Anna  that  evening  took  the  shreds  of  his  army 
and  went  away. 

General  Kearney  was  sent  to  take  New  Mexico 


THE    FIGHT    WAS    A   HOT   ONE. 


and  California.  His  work  consisted  mainly  in 
marching  for  General  Fremont,  who  had  been 
surveying  a  new  route  to  Oregon,  and  had  with 
sixty  men  been  so  successful  that  on  the  arrival 
of  Kearney,  with  the  aid  of  Commodores  Sloat 
and  Stockton,  California  was  captured,  and  has 
given  general  satisfaction  to  every  one. 

In    March,    1847,   General    Scott,   with   twelve 
thousand  men,  bombarded  Vera  Cruz  four  days, 


MORE  DIFFICULTIES  STRAIGHTENED    OUT.     229 

and  at  the  end  of  that  time  the  city  was  surren- 
dered. 

At  Cerro  Gordo,  a  week  later,  Scott  overtook 
the  enemy  under  General  Santa  Anna,  and  made 
such  a  fierce  attack  that  the  Mexicans  were  com- 
pletely routed.  Santa  Anna  left  his  leg  on  the 
field  of  battle  and  rode  away  on  a  pet  mule  named 
Charlotte  Corday.  The  leg  was  preserved  and 
taken  to  the  Smithsonian  Institute.  It  is  made  of 
second-growth  hickory,  and  has  a  brass  ferrule 
and  a  rubber  eraser  on  the  end.  General  Taylor 
afterwards  taunted  him  with  this  incident,  and, 
though  greatly  irritated,  Santa  Anna  said  there 
was  no  use  trying  to  kick. 

Puebla  resisted  not,  and  the  army  marched  into 
the  city  of  Mexico  August  7.  The  road  was  ren- 
dered disagreeable  by  strong  fortifications  and 
thirty  thousand  men  who  were  not  on  good  terms 
with  Scott.  The  environments  and  suburbs  one 
after  another  were  taken,  and  a  parley  for  peace 
ensued,  during  which  the  Mexicans  were  busy 
fortifying  some  more  on  the  quiet. 

September  8  the  Americans  made  their  assault, 
and  carried  the  outworks  one  by  one.  Then  the 
castle  of  Chapultepec  was  stormed.  First  the 
outer  works  were  scaled,  which  made  them  much 
more  desirable,  and  the  moat  was  removed  by 
means  of  a  stomach-pump  and  blotting-pad,  and 
then  the  escarpment  was  upended,  the  Don  John 


20 


230         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

tower  was  knocked  silly  by  a  solid  shot,  and  the 
castle  capitulated. 

Thus  on  the  i4th  of  September  the  old  flag 
floated  over  the  court-house  of  Mexico,  and  Gen- 
eral Scott  ate  his  tea  in  the  palace  of  the  Mon- 
tezumas.  Peace  was  declared  February  2,  1848, 
and  the  United  States  owned  the  vast  country 
southward  to  the  Gila  (pronounced  Heeler)  and 
west  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

The  Wilmot  Proviso  was  invented  by  David 
Wilmot,  a  poor,  struggling  member  of  Congress, 
who  moved  that  in  any  territory  acquired  by  the 
United  States  slavery  should  be  prohibited  except 
upon  the  advice  of  a  physician.  The  motion  was 
lost. 

Gold  was  discovered  in  the  Sacramento  Valley 
in  August,  1848,  by  a  workman  who  was  building 
a  mill-race.  A  struggle  ensued  over  this  ground 
as  to  who  should  own  the  race.  It  threatened  to 
terminate  in  a  race  war,  but  was  settled  amicably. 

In  eighteen  months  one  hundred  thousand  peo- 
ple went  to  the  scene.  Thousands  left  their  skel- 
etons with  the  red  brother,  and  other  thousands 
left  theirs  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  or  on  the 
cruel  desert.  Many  married  men  went  who  had 
been  looking  a  long  time  for  some  good  place  to 
go  to.  Leaving  their  wives  with  ill-concealed 
relief,  they  started  away  through  a  country  filled 
with  death,  to  reach  a  country  they  knew  not  of. 


MORE  DIFFICULTIES  STRAIGHTENED    OUT.     231 


Some  died  en  route,  others  were  hanged,  and  still 
others  became  the  heads  of  new  families.  Some 
came  back  and  carried  water  for  their  wives  to 
wash  clothing  for  their  neighbors. 

It  was  a  long  hard  trip  then  across  the  plains. 
One  of  the  author's  friends  at  the  age  of  thirteen 
years  drove  a  little  band  of  cows  from  the  State 
of  Indiana  to  Sacramento.  He  says  he  would  not 
do  it  again  for  anything.  He  is  now  a  man,  and 
owns  a  large  prune-orchard  in  California,  and  peo- 
ple tell  him  he  is  getting  too  stout,  and  that  he 
ought  to  exercise  more,  and  that  he  ought  to  walk 
every  day  several  miles  ;  but  he  shakes  his  head, 
and  says,  "  No,  I  will  not  walk  any  to-day,  and 
possibly  not  to-morrow  or  the  day  following.  Do 
not  come  to  me  and  refer  to 
taking  a  walk :  I  have  tried 


SOME   CAME   BACK    AND   CARRIED    WATER    FOR   THEIR   WIVES   TO   WASH    CLOTHING. 


232          HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

that.  Possibly  you  take  me  for  a  dromedary  ; 
but  you  are  wrong.  I  am  a  fat  man,  and  may 
die  suddenly  some  day  while  lacing  up  my  shoes, 
but  when  I  go  anywhere  I  ride." 

When  he  got  to  Sacramento,  where  gold  was 
said  to  be  so  plentiful,  he  was  glad  to  wash  dishes 
for  his  board,  and  he  went  and  hired  himself  out 
to  a  citizen  of  that  country,  and  he  sent  him  into 
the  fields  for  to  feed  swine,  and  he  would  fain  have 
filled  his  system  with  the  California  peaches  which 
the  swine  did  eat,  and  he  began  to  be  in  want,  and 
no  man  gave  unto  him,  and  if  he  had  spent  his 
substance  in  riotous  living,  he  said,  it  would  have 
been  different. 

About  thirty  years  after  that  he  arose  and  went 
unto  his  father,  and  carried  his  dinner  with  him, 
also  a  government  bond  and  a  new  suit  of  raiment 
for  the  old  gentleman. 

I  do  not  know  what  we  should  learn  from  this. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE   WEBSTERS. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER,  together  with  Mr.  Clay, 
had  much  to  do  with  the  Compromise 
measures  of  1850.  These  consisted  in 
the  admission  of  California  as  a  free  State,  the 
organizing  of  the  Territories  of  Utah  and  New 
Mexico  without  any  provision  regarding  slavery 
pro  or -con,  the  payment  to  Texas  of  one  hundred 
million  dollars  for  New  Mexico, — which  was  a 
good  trade  for  Texas, — the  prohibition  of  the 
slave-trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the 
enactment  of  a  Fugitive  Slave  Law  permitting 
owners  of  slaves  to  follow  them  into  the  free 
States  and  take  them  back  in  irons,  if  necessary. 
The  officials  and  farmers  of  the  free  States  were 
also  expected  to  turn  out,  call  the  dog,  leave  their 
work,  and  help  catch  these  chattels  and  carry  them 
to  the  south-bound  train. 

Daniel  Webster  was  born  in  1782,  and  Noah  in 
1758.  Daniel  was  educated  at  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege, where  he  was  admitted  in  1797.  He  taught 
school  winters  and  studied  summers,  as  many 
other  great  men  have  done  since,  until  he  knew 

20*  233 


234 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


about  everything  that  anybody  could.    What  Dan 
did  not  know,  Noah  did. 

Strange  to  say,  Daniel  was  frightened  to  death 
when  first  called  upon  to  speak  a  piece.  He  says 
he  committed  dozens  of  pieces  to  memory  and 
recited  them  to  the  woods  and  crags  and  cows 


DANIEL    WEBSTER    COULD    NOT    STAND    UP    BEFORE    A    SCHOOL    AND    UTTER    A    WORD. 

and  stone  abutments  of  the  New  England  farms, 
but  could  not  stand  up  before  a  school  and  utter 
a  word. 

In  1 80 1  he  studied  law  with  Thomas  W. 
Thompson,  afterwards  United  States  Senator. 
He  read  then  for  the  first  time  that  "  Law  is  a 
rule  of  action  prescribing  what  is  right  and  pro- 
hibiting what  is  wrong." 

In   1812   he  was   elected  to  Congress,  and  in 


THE    WEBSTERS.  235 

1813  made  his  maiden  speech.  One  of  his  most 
masterly  speeches  was  made  on  economical  and 
financial  subjects  ;  and  yet  in  order  to  get  his  blue 
broadcloth  coat  with  brass  buttons  from  the  tailor- 
shop  to  wear  while  making  the  speech,  he  had  to 
borrow  twenty-five  dollars. 

When  the  country  has  wanted  a  man  to  talk 
well  on  these  subjects  it  has  generally  been  com- 
pelled to  advance  money  to  him  before  he  could 
make  a  speech.  Sometimes  he  has  to  be  taken 
from  the  pawn-shop.  Webster,  it  is  said,  was  the 
most  successful  lawyer,  after  he  returned  to  Bos- 
ton, that  the  State  of  Massachusetts  has  ever 
known  ;  and  yet  his  mail  was  full  of  notices  from 
banks  down  East,  announcing  that  he  had  over- 
drawn his  account. 

Once  he  was  hard  pressed  for  means,  as  he  was 
trying  to  run  a  farm,  and  running  a  farm  costs 
money  :  so  he  went  to  a  bank  to  borrow.  He 
hated  to  do  it,  because  he  had  no  special  induce- 
ments to  offer  a  bank  or  to  make  it  hilariously 
loan  him  money. 

"  How  much  did  you  think  you  would  need,  Mr. 
Webster?"  asked  the  President,  cutting  off  some 
coupons  as  he  spoke  and  making  paper  dolls  of 
them. 

"Well,  I  could  get  along  very  well,"  said  Web- 
ster, in  that  deep,  resinous  voice  of  his,  "if  I 
could  have  two  thousand  dollars." 


236         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

"Well,  you  remember,"  said  the  banker,  "do 
you  not,  that  you  have  two  thousand  dollars  here, 
that  you  deposited  five  years  ago,  after  you  had 
dined  with  the  Governor  of  North  Carolina?" 

"  No,  I  had  forgotten  about  that,"  said  Webster. 
"  Give  me  a  blank  check  without  unnecessary 
delay." 

We  may  learn  from  this  that  Mr.  Webster  was 
not  a  careful  man  in  the  matter  of  detail. 

His  speech  on  the  two-hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  was  a  good  thing, 
and  found  its  way  into  the  press  of  the  time.  His 
speech  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Bunker  Hill  Monument,  and  his  eulogy  of  Adams 
and  Jefferson,  were  beautiful  and  thrilling. 

Daniel  Webster  had  a  very  large  brain,  and 
used  to  loan  his  hat  to  brother  Senators  now  and 
then  when  their  heads  were  paining  them,  pro- 
vided he  did  not  want  it  himself. 

His  reply  to  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, in  1830,  was  regarded  as  one  of  his  ablest 
parliamentary  efforts.  Hayne  attacked  New 
England,  and  first  advanced  the  doctrine  of  nulli- 
fication, which  was  even  more  dangerous  than 
secession, — Jefferson  Davis  in  1860  denying  that 
he  had  ever  advocated  or  favored  such  a  doctrine. 

Webster  spoke  extempore,  and  people  sent  out 
for  their  lunch  rather  than  go  away  in  the  midst 
of  his  remarks. 


THE    WEBSTERS. 


237 


Webster  married   twice,    but  did   not  let  that 
make  any  difference  with  his  duty  to  his  country. 


SENT   OUT   FOR    THEIR    LUNCH    RATHER   THAN  GO    AWAY    IN   THE    MIDST   OF   HIS 
REMARKS. 

He  tried  to  farm  it  some,  but  did  not  amass  a 
large  sum,   owing  to  his  heavy  losses  in  trying 


238          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

year  after  year  to  grow  Saratoga  potatoes  for  the 
Boston  market. 

No  American,  foreign  or  domestic,  ever  made 
a  greater  name  for  himself  than  Daniel  Webster, 
but  he  was  not  so  good  a  penman  as  Noah  ;  Noah 
was  the  better  pen-writer. 

Noah  Webster  also  had  the  better  command  of 
language  of  the  two.  Those  who  have  read  his 
great  work  entitled  "Webster's  Elementary  Spell- 
ing-Book,  or,  How  One  Word  Led  to  Another," 
will  agree  with  me  that  he  was  smart.  Noah 
never  lacked  for  a  word  by  which  to  express  him- 
self. He  was  a  brainy  man  and  a  good  speller. 

One  by  one  our  eminent  men  are  passing  away. 
Mr.  Webster  has  passed  away  ;  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte is  no  more  ;  and  Dr.  Mary  Walker  is  fading 
away.  This  has  been  a  severe  winter  on  Red 
Shirt ;  and  I  have  to  guard  against  the  night  air  a 
good  deal  myself. 

It  would  ill  become  me,  at  this  late  date,  to  criti- 
cise Mr.  Webster's  work,  a  work  that  is  now,  I 
may  say,  in  nearly  every  home  and  school-room 
in  the  land.  It  is  a  great  book.  I  only  hope 
that  had  Mr.  Webster  lived  he  would  have  been 
equally  fair  in  his  criticism  of  my  books. 

I  hate  to  compare  my  books  with  Mr.  Webster's, 
because  it  looks  egotistical  in  me  ;  but,  although 
Noah's  book  is  larger  than  mine,  and  has  more 
literary  attractions  as  a  book  to  set  a  child  on  at 


THE    WEBSTERS.  239 

the  table,   it  does   not  hold  the  interest  of   the 
reader  all  the  way  through. 

He  has  introduced  too  many  characters  into  his  : 
book  at  the  expense  of  the  plot.  It  is  a  good 
book  to  pick  up  and  while  away  a  leisure  hour, 
perhaps,  but  it  is  not  a  work  that  could  rivet  your 
interest  till  midnight,  while  the  fire  went  out  and 
the  thermometer  stepped  down  to  47°  below  zero. 
You  do  not  hurry  through  the  pages  to  see 
whether  Reginald  married  the  girl  or  not.  Mr. 
Webster  did  not  seem  to  care  how  the  affair 
turned  out. 

Therein  consists  the  great  difference  between 
Noah  and  myself.     He  doesn't  keep  up  the  inter- 
est.    A  friend  of  mine  at  Sing  Sing,  who  secured 
one  of  my  books,  said  he 
never  left  his  room  till  he 
had  devoured  it.     He  said 
he  seemed  chained  to  the 
spot  ;    and    if    you    can't 
believe   a  convict  wrho  is 
entirely    out    of    politics, 
whom,    in   the   name   of 
George  Washington,  can 
you  trust? 

Mr.  Webster  was  cer- 
tainly a  most  brilliant 
writer,  though  a  little 


inclined, 


tO     DC 


NEVER    LEFT    HIS    ROOM    TILL    HE    HAD    DEVOURED    IT. 


240          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

wordy.  I  have  discovered  in  some  of  his  later 
books  one  hundred  and  eighteen  thousand  words 
no  two  of  which  are  alike.  This  shows  great 
fluency  and  versatility,  it  is  true,  but  we  need 
something  else.  The  reader  waits  in  vain  to  be 
thrilled  by  the  author's  wonderful  word-painting. 
There  is  not  a  thrill  in  the  whole  tome. 

I  had  heard  so  much  of  Mr.  Webster  that  when 
I  read  his  book  I  confess  I  was  disappointed.  It 
is  cold,  methodical,  dry,  and  dispassionate  in  the 
extreme,  and  one  cannot  help  comparing  it  with 
the  works  of  James  Fenimore  Cooper  and  Horace. 

As  I  said,  however,  it  is  a  good  book  to  pick 
up  for  the  purpose  of  whiling  away  an  idle  hour. 
No  one  should  travel  without  Mr.  Webster's  tale. 
Those  who  examine  this  tale  will  readily  see  why 
there  were  no  flies  on  the  author.  He  kept  them 
off  with  this  tale. 

It  is  a  good  book,  as  I  say,  to  take  up  for  a 
moment,  or  to  read  on  the  train,  or  to  hold  the 
door  open  on  a  hot  day.  I  would  never  take  a 
long  railroad  ride  without  it,  eyether.  I  would  as 
soon  forget  my  bottle  of  cough-medicine. 

Mr.  Webster's  Speller  had  an  immense  sale. 
Ten  years  ago  he  had  sold  forty  million  copies. 
And  yet  it  had  this  same  defect.  It  was  cold, 
dull,  disconnected,  and  verbose.  There  was  only 
one  good  thing  in  the  book,  and  that  was  a  little 
\  literary  gem  regarding  a  boy  who  broke  in  and 


THE    WEBSTERS.  241 

stole  the  apples  of  a  total  stranger.  The  story 
was  so  good  that  I  have  often  wondered  whom 
Mr.  Webster  got  to  write  it  for  him. 

The  old  man,  it  seems,  at  first  told  the  boy  that 
he  had  better  come  down,  as  there  was  a  draught 
in  the  tree  ;  but  the  young  sass-box — apple-sass- 
box,  I  presume — told  him  to  avaunt. 

At  last  the  old  man  said,  "  Come  down,  honey. 
I  am  afraid  the  limb  will  break  if  you  don't." 
Then,  as  the  boy  still  remained,  he  told  him  that 
those  were  not  eating-apples,  that  they  were  just 
common  cooking-apples,  and  that  there  were 
worms  in  them.  But  the  boy  said  he  didn't  mind 
a  little  thing  like  that.  So  then  the  old  gentleman 
got  irritated,  and  called  the  dog,  and  threw  turf  at 
the  boy,  and  at  last  saluted  him  with  pieces  of  turf 
and  decayed  cabbages  ;  and  after  the  lad  had  gone 
away  the  old  man  pried  the  bull-dog's  jaws  open 
and  found  a  mouthful  of  pantaloons  and  a  freckle. 

I  do  not  tell  this,  of  course,  in  Mr.  Webster's 
language,  but  I  give  the  main  points  as  they  recur 
now  to  my  mind. 

Though  I  have  been  a  close  student  of  Mr. 
Webster  for  years  and  have  carefully  examined 
his  style,  I  am  free  to  say  that  his  ideas  about 
writing  a  book  are  not  the  same  as  mine.  Of 
course  it  is  a  great  temptation  for  a  young  author 
to  write  a  book  that  will  have  a  large  sale  ;  but 
that  should  not  be  all.  We  should  have  a  higher 


21 


242          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

object  than  that,  and  strive  to  interest  those  who 
read  the  book.  It  should  not  be  jerky  and  scat- 
tering in  its  statements. 

I  do  not  wish  to  do  an  injustice  to  a  great  man 
who  is  now  no  more,  a  man  who  did  so  much  for 
the  world  and  who  could  spell  the  longest  word 
without  hesitation,  but  I  speak  of  these  things  just 
as  I  would  expect  others  to  criticise  my  work.  If 
one  aspire  to  be  a  member  of  the  literati  of  his 
day,  he  must  expect  to  be  criticised.  I  have  been 
criticised  myself.  When  I  was  in  public  life, — as 
a  justice  of  the  peace  in  the  Rocky  Mountains, — 
a- man  came  in  one  day  and  criticised  me  so  that  I 
did  not  get  over  it  for  two  weeks. 

I  might  add,  though  I  dislike  to  speak  of  it  now, 
that  Mr.  Webster  was  at  one  time  a  member  of 
the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts.  I  believe  that 
was  the  only  time  he  ever  stepped  aside  from  the 
strait  and  narrow  way.  A  good  many  people  do 
not  know  this,  but  it  is  true. 

Mr.  Webster  was  also  a  married  man,  yet  he 
never  murmured  or  repined. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

BEFO'  THE  WAH CAUSES  WHICH  LED  TO  IT MAS- 
TERLY GRASP  OF  THE  SUBJECT  SHOWN  BY  THE 
AUTHOR. 

A  MAN   named  Lopez  in   1851   attempted  to 
annex  Cuba,  thus  furnishing  for  our  Re- 
publican wrapper  a  genuine  Havana  filler  ; 
but  he  failed,  and  was  executed,  while  his  plans 
were  not. 

Franklin  Pierce  was  elected  President  on  the 
Democratic  ticket,  running  against  General  Scott, 
the  Whig  candidate.  Slavery  began  to  be  dis- 
cussed again,  when  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  in  Con- 
gress, advocated  squatter  sovereignty,  or  the  right 
for  each  Territory  to  decide  whether  it  would  be  a 
free  or  a  slave  State.  The  measure  became  a  law 
in  1854. 

That  was  what  made  trouble  in  Kansas.  The 
two  elements,  free  and  slave,  were  arrayed  against 
each  other,  and  for  several  years  friends  from 
other  States  had  to  come  over  and  help  Kansas 
bury  its  dead.  The  condition  of  things  for  some 
time  was  exceedingly  mortifying  to  the  citizen  who 
went  out  to  milk  after  dark  without  his  gun. 

243 


244 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Trouble  with  Mexico  arose,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  the  government  had  used  a  poor  and  unreli- 
able map  in  establishing  the  line :  so  General 
Gadsden  made  a  settlement  for  the  disputed 
ground,  and  we  paid  Mexico  ten  millions  of  dol- 
lars. It  is  needless  to  say  that  we  have  since 
seen  the  day  when  we  wished  that  we  had  it  back. 


EXCEEDINGLY    MORTIFYING   TO  THE  CITIZEN   WHO   WENT   TO    MILK    WITHOUT  HIS  GUN. 

Two  ports  of  entry  were  now  opened  to  us  in 
Japan  by  Commodore  Perry's  Expedition,  and 
cups  and  saucers  began  to  be  more  plentiful  in 
this  country,  many  of  the  wealthier  deciding  at 
that  time  not  to  cool  tea  in  the  saucer  or  drink  it 
vociferously  from  that  vessel.  This  custom  and 
the  Whig  party  passed  away  at  the  same  time. 

The  Republican  or  Anti-Slavery  party  nomi- 
nated for  President  John  C.  Fremont,  who  re- 


.      BEF&   THE    WAH.  245 

ceived  the  vote  of  eleven  States,  but  James 
Buchanan  was  elected,  and  proved  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  world  that  there  is  nothing  to 
prevent  any  unemployed  man's  applying  for  the 
Presidency  of  the  United  States  ;  also  that  if  his 
life  has  been  free  from  ideas  and  opinions  he  may 
be  elected  sometimes  where  one  who  has  been 
caught  in  the  very  act  of  thinking,  and  had  it 
proved  on  him,  might  be  defeated. 

Chief-Justice  Taney  now  stated  that  slaves  could 
be  taken  into  any  State  of  the  Union  by  their 
owners  without  forfeiting  the  rights  of  ownership. 
This  was  called  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  did 
much  to  irritate  Abolitionists  like  John  Brown, 
whose  soul  as  this  book  goes  to  press  is  said  to 
be  marching  on.  Brown  was  a  Kansas  man  with 
a  mission  and  massive  whiskers.  He  would  be 
called  now  a  crank  ;  but  his  action  in  seizing  a 
United  States  arsenal  at  Harper's  Ferry  and  de- 
claring the  slaves  free  was  regarded  by  the  South  as 
thoroughly  representative  of  the  Northern  feeling. 

The  country  now  began  to  be  in  a  state  of  rest- 
lessness. Brown  had  been  captured  and  hanged 
as  a  traitor.  Northern  men  were  obliged  to  leave 
their  work  every  little  while  to  catch  a  negro, 
crate  him,  and  return  him  to  his  master  or  give 
him  a  lift  towards  Canada  ;  and,  as  the  negro  was 
replenishing  the  earth  at  an  astonishing  rate, 
general  alarm  broke  out. 

21* 


246         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Douglas  was  the  champion  of  squatter  sover- 
eignty, John  C.  Breckinridge  of  the  doctrine  that 
slaves  could  be  checked  through  as  personal  bag- 
gage into  any  State  of  the  Union, 
and  Lincoln  of  the  anti-slavery  prin- 
ciple which  after- 
wards constituted 
the  spinal  column 
of  the  Federal 
Govern- 
ment as 
opposed 

to  the     /^~"' &\    jJJFfKfo        v*%)  ^  Confed- 
eracy of 
the   se- 
ceded States. 

Lincoln   was 
elected,  which  re- 
minded him 
of  an  anec- 
dote.    Douglas 
and  several  other 
candidates  were 
defeated,  which 


did    not    remind 
them  of  anything. 
South  Carolina  seceded  in  December,  1860,  and 
soon  after  Mississippi,  Florida,  Alabama,  Georgia, 
Louisiana,  and  Texas  followed  suit. 


OBLIGED   TO   LEAVE   THEIR    WORK    EVERY    LITTLE 
WHILE   TO    CATCH    A    NEGRO. 


BEFa   THE    WAH.  247 

The  following  February  the  Confederacy  was 
organized  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  and  Jefferson 
Davis  was  elected  President.  Long  and  patient 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  historian  to  ascertain  how 
he  liked  it  has  been  entirely  barren  of  results. 
Alexander  H.  Stephens  was  made  Vice-President. 

Everything  belonging  to  the  United  States  and 
not  thoroughly  fastened  down  was  carried  away 
by  the  Confederacy,  while  President  Buchanan 
looked  the  other  way  or  wrote  airy  persiflage  to 
tottering  dynasties  which  slyly  among  themselves 
characterized  him  as  a  neat  and  cleanly  old  lady. 

Had  Buchanan  been  a  married  man  it  is  gener- 
ally believed  now  that  his  wife  would  have  pre- 
vented the  war.  Then  she  would  have  called 
James  out  from  under  the  bed  and  allowed  him  to 
come  to  the  table  for  his  meals  with  the  family. 
But  he  was  not  married,  and  the  war  came  on. 

Major  Anderson  was  afraid  to  remain  at  Fort 
Moultrie  in  Charleston  Harbor,  so  crossed  over 
to  Fort  Sumter.  The  South  regarded  this  as 
hostility,  and  the  fort  was  watched  to  see  if  any 
one  should  attempt  to  divide  his  lunch  with  the 
garrison,  which  it  was  declared  would  be  regarded 
as  an  act  of  defiance.  The  reader  will  see  by 
this  that  a  deaf  and  dumb  asylum  in  Northern 
Michigan  was  about  the  only  safe  place  for  a 
peaceable  man  at  that  time. 

President  Lincoln  found  himself  placed  at  the 


248          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

head  of  a  looted  government  on  the  sharp  edge 
of  a  crisis  that  had  not  been  properly  upholstered. 
The  Buchanan  cabinet  had  left  little  except  a 
burglar's  tool  or  two  here  and  there  to  mark  its 
operations,  and,  with  the  aged  and  infirm  General 
Scott  at  the  head  of  a  little  army,  and  no  encour- 
agement except  from  the  Abolitionists,  many  of 
whom  had  never  seen  a  colored  man  outside  of  a 
minstrel  performance,  the  President  stole  incog, 
into  Washington,  like  a  man  who  had  agreed  to 
lecture  there. 

Southern  officers  resigned  daily  from  the  army 
and  navy  to  go  home  and  join  the  fortunes  of 
their  several  States.  Meantime,  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment moved  about  like  a  baby  elephant  loaded 
with  shot,  while  the  new  Confederacy  got  men, 
money,  arms,  and  munitions  of  war  from  every 
conceivable  point. 

Finding  that  supplies  were  to  be  sent  to  Major 
Anderson,  General  Peter  G.  T.  Beauregard  sum- 
moned Major  Anderson  to  surrender.  General 
Beauregard,  after  the  war,  became  one  of  the 
good,  kind  gentlemen  who  annually  stated  over 
their  signatures  that  they  had  examined  the 
Louisiana  State  Lottery  and  that  there  was  no 
deception  about  it.  The  Lottery  felt  grateful  for 
this,  and  said  that  the  general  should  never  want 
while  it  had  a  roof  of  its  own. 

Major  Anderson  had  seventy  men,  while  General 


BEFV    THE    WAH.  249 

Beauregard  had  seven  thousand.  After  a  bom- 
bardment and  a  general  fight  of  thirty-four  hours, 
the  starved  and  suffocated  garrison  yielded  to 
overwhelming  numbers. 

President  Lincoln  was  not  admired  by  a  class 
of  people  in  the  North  and  South  who  heard  with 
horror  that  he  had  at  one  time  worked  for  ten 
dollars  a  month.  They  thought  the  President's 
salary  too  much  for  him,  and  feared  that  he  would 
buy  watermelons  with  it.  They  also  feared  that 
some  day  he  might  tell  a  funny  story  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Queen  Victoria.  The  snobocracy  could 
hardly  sleep  nights  for  fear  that  Lincoln  at  a  state 
dinner  might  put  sugar  and  cream  in  his  cold 
consomme. 

Jefferson  Davis,  it  was  said,  knew  more  of  eti- 
quette in  a  minute  than  Lincoln  knew  all  his  life. 

The  capture  of  Sumter  united  the  North  and 
unified  the  South.  It  made  "war  Democrats" — 
i.e.,  Democrats  who  had  voted  against  Lincoln — 
join  him  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  More 
United  States  property  was  cheerfully  appro- 
priated by  the  Confederacy,  which  showed  that  it 
was  alive  and  kicking  from  the  very  first  minute 
it  was  born. 

Confederate  troops  were  sent  into  Virginia  and 
threatened  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  and  would 
have  taken  it  if  the  city  had  not,  in  summer,  been 
regarded  as  unhealthful. 


250         HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

The  Sixth  Massachusetts  Regiment  hurrying  to 
the  capital,  was  attacked  in  Baltimore  and  several 
men  were  killed.  This  was  the  first  actual  blood- 
shed in  the  civil  war  which  caused  rivers  and  lakes 
and  torrents  of  the  best  blood  of  North  and  South 
to  cover  the  fair,  sweet  clover  fields  and  blue-grass 
meadows  made  alone  for  peace. 

The  general  opinion  of  the  author,  thirty-five 

/  years  afterwards,  is  that  the  war  was  as  unavoidable 

as  the  deluge,  and  as  idiotic  in  its  incipiency  as 

Adam's  justly  celebrated    defence   in    the   great 

"Apple  Sass  Case." 

Men  will  fight  until  it  is  educated  out  of  them, 
just  as  they  will  no  doubt  retain  rudimentary  tails 
and  live  in  trees  till  they  know  better.  It's  all 
owing  to  how  a  man  was  brought  up. 

Of  course  after  we  have  been  drawn  into  the 
fight  and  been  fined  and  sent  home,  we  like  to 
maintain  that  we  were  fighting  for  our  home,  or 
liberty,  or  the  flag,  or  something  of  the  kind.  We 
hate  to  admit  that,  as  a  nation,  we  fought  and  paid 
for  it  afterwards  with  our  family's  bread-money 
just  because  we  were  irritated.  That's  natural ; 
but  most  great  wars  are  arranged  by  people  who 
stay  at  home  and  sell  groceries  to  the  widow  and 
orphan  and  old  maids  at  one  hundred  per  cent, 
advance.  , 

Arlington  Heights  and  Alexandria  were  now 
seized  and  occupied  by  the  Union  troops  for  the 


BEFO   THE    WAH.  251 

protection  of  Washington,  and  mosquito-wires 
were  put  up  in  the  Capitol  windows  to  keep  the 
largest  of  the  rebels  from  coming  in  and  biting 
Congress. 

Fort  Monroe  was  garrisoned  by  a  force  under 
General  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  and  an  expedition 
was  sent  out  against  Big  Bethel.  On  the  way  the 
Federal  troops  fired  into  each  other,  which  pleased 
the  Confederates  very  much  indeed.  The  Union 
troops  were  repulsed  with  loss,  and  went  back  to 
the  fort,  where  they  stated  that  they  were  disap- 
pointed in  the  war. 

West  Virginia  was  strongly  for  the  Union  in 
sentiment,  and  was  set  off  from  the  original  State 
of  Virginia,  and,  after  some  fighting  the  first  year 
of  the  war  over  its  territory,  came  into  line  with 
the  Northern  States.  The  fighting  here  was  not 
severe.  Generals  McClellan  and  Rosecrans 
(Union)  and  Lee  (Confederate)  were  the  prin- 
cipal commanders. 

The  first  year  of  the  war  was  largely  spent  in 
sparring  for  wind,  as  one  very  able  authority  has  it. 

In  the  next  chapter  reference  will  be  made  to 
the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  the  odium  will  be 
placed  where  it  belongs.  The  author  reluctantly 
closes  this  chapter  in  order  to  go  out  and  get 
some  odium  for  that  purpose. 


U 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

BULL  RUN  AND  OTHER  BATTLES. 

ON  the  2ist  of  July,  1861,  occurred  the  battle 
of  Bull  Run,  under  the  joint  management 
of  General  Irwin  McDowell  and  General 
P.  G.  T.  Beauregard.  After  a  sharp  conflict,  the 
Confederates  were  repulsed,  but  rallied  again  under 
General  T.  J.  Jackson,  called  thereafter  Stonewall 
Jackson.  While  the  Federals  were  striving  to 
beat  Jackson  back,  troops  under  Generals  Early 
and  Kirby  Smith  from  Manassas  Junction  were 
hurled  against  their  flank.*  McDowell's  men  re- 
treated, and  as  they  reached  the  bridge  a  shell 
burst  among  their  crowded  and  chaotic  numbers. 
A  caisson  was  upset,  and  a  panic  ensued,  many 
of  the  troops  continuing  at  a  swift  canter  till  they 
reached  the  Capitol,  where  they  could  call  on  the 
sergeant-at-arms  to  preserve  order. 

As  a  result  of  this  run  on  the  banks  of  the 
Potomac,  the  North  suddenly  decided  that  the 
war  might  last  a  week  or  two  longer  than  at  first 

*  While  the  Union  forces  did  not  succeed  in  beating  Stonewall  Jackson 
back,  in  returning  to  Washington  they  succeeded  in  beating  everybody  else 
back.     (See  Appendix.) 
252 


BULL   RUN  AND    OTHER  BATTLES.  253 

stated,  that  the  foe  could  not  be  killed  with  corn- 
stalks, and  that  a  mistake  had  been  made  in) 
judging  that  the  rebellion  wasn't  loaded.*  Half  a 
million  men  were  called  for  and  five  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars  voted.  General  George  B.  McClellan 
took  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

The  battle  of  Ball's  Bluff  resulted  disastrously 
to  the  Union  forces,  and  two  thousand  men  were 
mostly  driven  into  the  Potomac,  some  drowned 
and  others  shot.  Colonel  Baker,  United  States 
Senator  from  Oregon,  was  killed. 

The  war  in  Missouri  now  opened.  Captain 
Lyon  reserved  the  United  States  arsenal  at  St. 
Louis,  and  defeated  Colonel  Marmaduke  at  Boone- 
ville.  General  Sigel  was  defeated  at  Carthage, 
July  5,  by  the  Confederates :  so  Lyon,  with  five 
thousand  men,  decided  to  attack  more  than  twice 
that  number  of  the  enemy  under  Price  and  McCul- 
loch,  which  he  did,  August  10,  at  Wilson's  Creek. 
He  was  killed  while  making  a  charge,  and  his  men 
were  defeated. 

General  Fremont  then  took  command,  and 
drove  Price  to  Springfield,  but  he  was  in  a  short 
time  replaced  by  General  Hunter,  because  his  war 

*  The  odium  to  be  cast  on  the  person  upon  whom  it  should  fall  for  the 
sickening  defeat  at  Bull  Run  was  found  to  be  in  such  wretched  condition 
at  the  time  these  lines  were  written  that  it  was  decided  to  go  on  without 
casting  it.     The  writer  points  with  pride  to  the  fact  that  in  writing  this  . 
history  fifteen  cents'  worth  of  odium  will  cover  the  entire  amount  used. 


254         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

policy  was  offensive  to  the  enemy.  Hunter  was 
soon  afterwards  removed,  and  Major-General  Hal- 
leek  took  his  place.  Halleck  gave  general  satis- 
faction to  the  enemy,  and  even  his  red  messages 
from  Washington,  where  he  boarded  during  the 
war,  were  filled  with  nothing  but  kindness  for  the 
misguided  foe. 

Davis  early  in  the  war  commissioned  privateers, 
and  Lincoln  blockaded  the  Southern  ports.  The 
North  had  but  one  good  vessel  at  the  time,  and 
those  who  have  tried  to  blockade  four  or  five 
thousand  miles,  of  hostile  coast  with  one  vessel 
know  full  well  what  it  is  to  be  busy.  The  entire 
navy  consisted  of  forty-two  ships,  and  some  of 
these  were  not  seaworthy.  Some  of  them  were 
so  pervious  that  their  guns  had  to  be  tied  on  to 
keep  them  from  leaking  through  the  cracks  of  the 
vessel. 

Hatteras  Inlet  was  captured,  and  Commodore 
Dupont,  aided  by  General  Thomas  W.  Sherman, 
captured  Port  Royal  Entrance  and  Tybee  Island. 
Port  Royal  became  the  depot  for  the  fleet. 

It  was  now  decided  at  the  South  to  send  Messrs. 
Mason  and  Slidell  to  England,  partly  for  change 
of  scene  and  rest,  and  partly  to  make  a  friendly 
call  on  Queen  Victoria  and  invite  her  to  come  and 
spend  the  season  at  Asheville,  North  Carolina.  It 
was  also  hoped  that  she  would  give  a  few  readings 
from  her  ewn  works  at  the  South,  while  her  retinue 


PULL  RUN  AND    OTHER  BATTLES. 


255 


could   go    to    the    front   and   have    fun   with  the 
Yankees,  if  so  disposed, 

These  gentlemen,  wearing  their  nice  new  broad- 
cloth clothes,  and  with  a  court  suit  and  suitable 


HOPED   SHE   WOULD   GIVE    A    FEW   READINGS    FROM    HER   OWN   WORKS. 

night-wear  to  use  in  case  they  should  be  pressed 
to  stop  a  week  or  two  at  the  castle,  got  to  Havana 
safely,  and  took  passage  on  the  British  ship  Trent ; 
but  Captain  Wilkes,  of  the  United  States  steamer 
San  Jacinto,  took  them  off  the  Trent,  just  as  Mr. 
Mason  had  drawn  and  fortunately  filled  a  hand 


256         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

with  which  he  hoped  to  pay  a  part  of  the  war-debt 
of  the  South  and  get  a  new  overcoat  in  London. 
Later,  however,  the  United  States  disavowed  this 
act  of  Captain  Wilkes,  and  said  it  was.  only  a  bit 
of  pleasantry  on  his  part. 

The  first  year  of  the  war  had  taught  both  sides 
a  few  truths,  and  especially  that  the  war  did  not 
in  any  essential  features  resemble  a  straw-ride  to 
camp-meeting  and  return.  The  South  had  also 
discovered  that  the  Yankee  peddlers  could  not  be 
captured  with  fly-paper,  and  that  although  war  was 
not  their  regular  job  they  were  willing  to  learn  how 
it  was  done. 

In  1862  the  national  army  numbered  five  hun- 
dred thousand  men,  and  the  Confederate  army 
three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  Three  objects 
were  decided  upon  by  the  Federal  government 
for  the  Union  army  and  navy  to  accomplish, — viz., 
i,  the  opening  of  the  Mississippi ;  2,  the  blockade 
of  Southern  ports  ;  and  3,  the  capture  of  Rich- 
mond, the  capital  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

The  capture  of  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson  was 
undertaken  by  General  Grant,  aided  by  Commo- 
dore Foote,  and  on  February  6  a  bombardment 
was  opened  with  great  success,  reducing  Fort 
Henry  in  one  hour.  The  garrison  got  away  be- 
cause the  land-forces  had  no  idea  the  fort  would 
yield  so  soon,  and  therefore  could  not  get  up  there 
in  time  to  cut  off  the  retreat. 


BULL  RUN  AND    OTHER  BATTLES.  257 

Fort  Donelson  was  next  attacked,  the  garrison 
having  been  reinforced  by  the  men  from  Fort 
Henry.  The  fight  lasted  four  days,  and  on  Feb- 
ruary 1 6  the  fort,  with  fifteen  thousand  men, 
surrendered. 

Nashville  was  now  easily  occupied  by  Buell,  and 
Columbus  and  Bowling  Green  were  taken.  The 
Confederates  fell  back  to  Corinth,  where  General 
Beauregard  (Peter  G.  T.)  and  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston  massed  their  forces. 

General  Grant  now  captured  the  Memphis  and 
Charleston  Railroad  ;  but  the  Confederates  de- 
cided to  capture  him  before  Buell,  who  had  been 
ordered  to  reinforce  him,  should  effect  a  junction 
with  him.  April  6  and  7,  therefore,  the  battle  of 
Shiloh  occurred.  Whether  the  Union  troops  were 
surprised  or  not  at  this  battle,  we  cannot  here 
pause  to  discuss.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  one  of  the 
Federal  officers  admitted  to  the  author  in  1879, 
while  under  the  influence  of  koumys,  that,  though 
not  strictly  surprised,  he  believed  he  violated  no 
confidence  in  saying  that  they  were  somewhat 
astonished. 

It  wa's  Sunday  morning,  and  the  Northern  hordes 
were  just  considering  whether  they  would  take  a 
bite  of  beans  and  go  to  church  or  remain  in  camp 
and  get  their  laundry-work  counted  for  Monday, 
when  the  Confederacy  and  some  other  men  burst 
upon  them  with  a  fierce,  rude  yell.  In  a  few 

r  22* 


258 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


moments  the  Federal  troops  had  decided  that 
there  had  sprung  up  a  strong  personal  enmity  on 
the  part  of  the  South,  and  that  ill  feeling  had 
been  engendered  in  some  way. 

All  that  beautiful  Sabbath-day  they  fought,  the 
Federals  yielding  ground  slowly  and  reluctantly 
till  the  bank  of  the  river  was  reached  and  Grant's 


SOME   OTHER   MEN   BURST   UPON  THEM   WITH    A    FIERCE,    RUDE  YELL. 

artillery  commanded  the  position.  Here  a  stand 
was  made  until  Buell  came  up,  and  shortly  after- 
wards the  Confederates  fell  back  ;  but  they  had 
captured  the  Yankee  camp  entire,  and  many  a  boy 
in  blue  lost  the  nice  warm  woollen  pulse-warmers 
crocheted  for  him  by  his  soul's  idol.  It  is  said  that 
over  thirty-five  hundred  needle-books  and  three 
thousand  men  were  captured  by  the  Confederates, 


BULL  RUN  AND    OTHER   BATTLES.  259 

also  thirty  flags  and  immense  quantities  of  stores  ; 
but  the  Confederate  commander,  General  A.  S. 
Johnston,  was  killed.  The  following  morning  the 
tide  had  turned,  and  General  P.  G.  T.  Beauregard 
retreated  unmolested  to  Corinth. 

General  Halleck  now  took  command,  and,  as 
the  Confederates  went  away  from  there,  he  oc- 
cupied Corinth,  though  still  retaining  his  rooms 
at  the  Arlington  Hotel  in  Washington. 

The  Confederates  who  retreated  from  Columbus 
fell  back  to  Island  No.  10  in  the  Mississippi  River, 
where  Commodore  Foote  bombarded  them  for 
three  weeks,  thus  purifying  the  air  and  making 
the  enemy  feel  much  better  than  at  any  previous 
time  during  the  campaign.  General  Pope  crossed 
the  Mississippi,  capturing  the  batteries  in  the  rear 
of  the  island,  and  turning  them  on  the  enemy, 
who  surrendered  April  7,  the  day  of  the  battle  of 
Shiloh. 

May  10,  the  Union  gun-boats  moved  down  the 
river.  Fort  Pillow  was  abandoned  by  the  Southern 
forces,  and  the  Confederate  flotilla  was  destroyed 
in  front  of  Memphis.  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
were  at  last  the  property  of  the  fierce  hordes  from 
the  great  coarse  North. 

General  Bragg  was  now  at  Chattanooga,  Price 
at  luka,  and  Van  Dorn  at  Holly  Springs.  All 
these  generals  had  guns,  and  were  at  enmity 
with  the  United  States  of  America.  They  very 


260         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

much  desired  to  break  the  Union  line  of  investment 
extending  from  Memphis  almost  to  Chattanooga. 

Bragg  started  out  for  the  Ohio  River,  intending 
to  cross  it  and  capture  the  Middle  States  ;  but 
Buell  heard  of  it  and  got  there  twenty-four  hours 
ahead,  wherefore  Bragg  abandoned  his  plans,  as 
it  flashed  over  him  like  a  clap  of  thunder  from  a 
clear  sky  that  he  had  no  place  to  put  the  Middle 
States  if  he  had  them.  He  therefore  escaped  in 
the  darkness,  his  wagon-trains  sort  of  drawling 
over  forty  miles  of  road  and  "  hit  a-rainin'." 

September  19,  General  Price,  who,  with  Van 
Dorn,  had  considered  it  a  good  time  to  attack 
Grant,  who  had  sent  many  troops  north  to  prevent 
Bragg' s  capture  of  North  America,  decided  to 
retreat,  and,  General  Rosecrans  failing  to  cut  him 
off,  escaped,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  fight  on 
other  occasions. 

The  two  Confederate  generals  now  decided  to 
attack  the  Union  forces  at  Corinth,  which  they  did. 
They  fought  beautifully,  especially  the  Texan  and 
Missouri  troops,  who  did  some  heroic  work,  but 
they  were  defeated  and  driven  forty  miles  with 
heavy  loss. 

October  30,  General  Buell  was  succeeded  by 
General  Rosecrans. 

The  battle  of  Murfreesboro  occurred  December 
31  and  January  2.  It  was  one  of  the  bloodiest 
battles  of  the  whole  conflict,  and  must  have  made 


BULL  RUN  AND   OTHER  BATTLES.  261 

the  men  who  brought  on  the  war  by  act  of  Con- 
gress feel  first-rate.  About  one-fourth  of  those 
engaged  were  killed. 

An  attack  on  Vicksburg,  in  which  Grant  and 
Sherman  were  to  co-operate,  the  former  moving 
along  the  Mississippi  Central  Railroad  and  Sher- 
man descending  the  river  from  Memphis,  was 
disastrous,  and  the  capture  of  Arkansas  Post, 
January  n,  1863,  closed  the  campaign  of  1862 
on  the  Father  of  Waters. 

General  Price  was  driven  out  of  Missouri  by 
General  Curtis,  and  had  to  stay  in  Arkansas  quite 
a  while,  though  he  preferred  a  dryer  climate. 

General  Van  Dorn  now  took  command  of  these 
forces,  numbering  twenty  thousand  men,  and  at 
Pea  Ridge,  March  7  and  8,  1863,  he  was  defeated 
to  a  remarkable  degree.  During  his  retreat  he 
could  hardly  restrain  his  impatience. 

Some  four  or  five  thousand  Indians  joined  the  / 
Confederates  in  this  battle,  but  were  so  astonished 
at  the  cannon,  and  so  shocked  by  the  large  de- 
cayed balls,  as  they  called  the  shells,  which  came 
hurtling  through  the  air,  now  and  then  hurting  an 
Indian  severely,  that  they  went  home  before  the 
exercises  were  more  than  half  through.  They 
were  down  on  the  programme  for  some  fantastic 
and  interesting  tortures  of  Union  prisoners,  but 
when  they  got  home  to  the  reservation  and  had 
picked  the  briers  out  of  themselves  they  said  that v. 


262 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


war  was  about  as  barbarous  a  thing  as  they  were 
ever  to,  and  they  went  to  bed  early,  leaving  a  call 
for  9.30  A.M.  on  the  following  day. 


WENT   HOME   BEFORE   THE    EXERCISES    WERE    MORE   THAN    HALF    THROUGH. 


The  red  brother's  style  of  warfare  has  an  air 
about  it  that  is  unpopular  now.  A  common  stone 
stab-knife  is  a  feeble  thing  to  use  against  people 
who  shoot  a  distance  of  eight  miles  with  a  gun 
that  carries  a  forty-gallon  caldron  full  of  red-hot 
iron. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

SOME    MORE    FRATRICIDAL   STRIFE. 

THE  effort  to  open  the  Mississippi  from  the 
north  was  seconded  by  an  expedition  from 
the  south,  in  which  Captain  David  G.  Far- 
ragut,  commanding  a  fleet  of  forty  vessels,  co- 
operated with  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  with 
the  capture  of  New  Orleans  as  the  object. 

Mortar-boats  covered  with  green  branches  for 
the  purpose  of  fooling  the  enemy,  as  no  one  could 
tell  at  any  distance  at  all  whether  these  were  or 
were  not  olive-branches,  steamed  up  the  river  and 
bombarded  Forts  Jackson  and  St.  Philip  till  the 
stunned  catfish  rose  to  the  surface  of  the  water  to 
inquire,  ''Why  all  this?"  and  turned  their  pallid 
stomachs  toward  the  soft  Southern  zenith.  Six- 
teen thousand  eight  hundred  shells  were  thrown 
into  the  two  forts,  but  that  did  not  capture  New 
Orleans. 

Farragut  now  decided  to  run  his  fleet  past  the 
defences,  and,  desperate  as  the  chances  were,  he 
started  on  April  24.  A  big  cable  stretched  across 
the  river  suggested  the  idea  that  there  was  a  hos- 
tile feeling  among  the  New  Orleans  people.  Five 

263 


264         HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

rafts  and  armed  steamers  met  him,  and  the  iron- 
plated  ram  Manassas  extended  to  him  a  cordial 
welcome  to  a  wide  wet  grave  with  a  southern 
exposure. 

Farragut  cut  through  the  cable  about  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  practically  destroyed  the 
Confederate  fleet,  and  steamed  up  to  the  city, 
which  was  at  his  mercy. 

The  forts,  now  threatened  in  the  rear  by  Butler's 
army,  surrendered,  and  Farragut  went  up  to  Baton 
Rouge  and  took  possession  of  it.  General  Butler's 
occupation  at  New  Orleans  has  been  variously 
commented  upon  by  both  friend  and  foe,  but  we 
are  only  able  to  learn  from  this  and  the  entire 
record  of  the  war,  in  fact,  that  it  is  better  to  avoid 
hostilities  unless  one  is  ready  to  accept  the  un- 
pleasant features  of  combat.  The  author,  when 
a  boy,  learned  this  after  he  had  acquired  the  un- 
pleasant features  resulting  from  combat  which  the 
artist  has  cleverly  shown  on  opposite  page. 

General  Butler  said  he  found  it  almost  impos- 
sible to  avoid  giving  offence  to  the  foe,  and  finally 
he  gave  it  up  in  despair. 

The  French  are  said  to  be  the  politest  people 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  but  no  German  will  admit 
it ;  and  though  the  Germans  are  known  to  have 
big,  warm,  hospitable  hearts,  since  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  you  couldn't  get  a  Frenchman  to 
admit  this. 


SOME  MORE  FRA  TRICIDAL  STRIFE. 


265 


In   February  Burnside 
captured  Roanoke  Island, 
and  the  coast  of  North 
Carolina  fell  into  the         f 
hands  of  the  Union 
army.      Port   Royal 
became  the  base  of  op- 
erations against  Florida, 
and  at  the  close  of  the 
year  1862  every  city  on 
the  Atlantic  coast  ex- 
cept   Charleston,  Wil- 
mington, and  Savannah  was  held  by  the 
Union  army. 

The  Merrimac  iron-clad,  which 
had  made  much  trouble  for  the 
Union  shipping  for  some  time,  steamed  into 
Hampton  Roads  on  the  8th  of  March.  Hamp- 
ton Roads  is  not  the  Champs-Elysees  of  the 
South,  but  a  long  wet  stretch  of  track  east  of 
Virginia, — the  Midway  Plaisance  of  the  Salted 
Sea.  The  Merrimac  steered  for  the  Cumberland, 
rammed  her,  and  the  Cumberland  sunk  like  a 
stove-lid,  with  all  on  board.  The  captain  of  the 
Congress,  warned  by  the  fate  of  the  Cumberland, 
ran  his  vessel  on  shore  and  tried  to  conceal  her 
behind  the  tall  grass,  but  the  Merrimac  followed 
and  shelled  her  till  she  surrendered. 

The    Merrimac   then   went    back    to    Norfolk, 

M  23 


UNPLEASANT    FEATURES   RESULTING 
FROM    COMBAT. 


266          HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

where  she  boarded,  night  having  come  on  apace. 
In  the  morning  she  aimed  to  clear  out  the  balance 
of  the  Union  fleet.  That  night,  however,  the 
Monitor,  a  flat  little  craft  with  a  revolving  tower, 
invented  by  Captain  Ericsson,  arrived,  and  in  the 
morning  when  the  Merrimac  started  in  on  her  day's 
work  of  devastation,  beginning  with  the  Minne- 
sota, the  insignificant-looking  Monitor  slid  up  to 
the  iron  monster  and  gave  her  two  one-hundred- 
and-sixty-six-and-three-quarter-pound  solid  shot. 

The  Merrimac  replied  with  a  style  of  broadside 
that  generally  sunk  her  adversary,  but  the  balls 
rolled  off  the  low  flat  deck  and  fell  with  a  solemn 
plunk  in  the  moaning  sea,  or  broke  in  fragments 
and  lay  on  the  forward  deck  like  the  shells  of 
antique  eggs  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Parlia- 
ment after  a  Home  Rule  argument. 

Five  times  the  Merrimac  tried  to  ram  the  little 
spitz-pup  of  the  navy,  but  her  huge  iron  beak  rode 
up  over  the  slippery  deck  of  the  enemy,  and  when 
the  big  vessel  looked  over  her  sides  to  see  its 
wreck,  she  discovered  that  the  Monitor  was  right 
side  up  and  ready  for  more. 

The  Confederate  vessel  gave  it  up  at  last,  and 
went  back  to  Norfolk  defeated,  her  career  sud- 
denly closed  by  the  timely  genius  of  the  able 
Scandinavian. 

The  Peninsular  campaign  was  principally  ad- 
dressed toward  the  capture  of  Richmond.  One 


SOME  MORE  FRATRICIDAL  STRIFE.          267 

hundred  thousand  men  were  massed  at  Fort 
Monroe  April  4,  and  marched  slowly  toward 
Yorktown,  where  five  thousand  Confederates 
under  General  Magruder  stopped  the  great  army 
under  McClellan. 

After  a  month's  siege,  and  just  as  McClellan 
was  about  to  shoot  at  the  town,  the  garrison  took 
its  valise  and  went  away. 

On  the  5th  of  May  occurred  the  battle  of  Wil- 
liamsburg,  between  the  forces  under  "  Fighting 
Joe"  Hooker  and  General  Johnston.  It  lasted 
nine  hours,  and  ended  in  the  routing  of  the  Con- 
federates and  their  pursuit  by  Hooker  to  within 
seven  miles  of  Richmond.  This  caused  the  ad- 
journment of  the  Confederate  Congress. 

But  Johnston  prevented  the  junction  of  Mc- 
Dowell and  McClellan  after  the  capture  of 
Hanover  Court-House,  and  Stonewall  Jackson, 
reinforced  by  Ewell,  scared  the  Union  forces  al- 
most to  death.  They  crossed  the  Potomac,  having 
marched  thirty-five  miles  per  day.  Washington 
was  getting  too  hot  now  to  hold  people  who  could 
get  away. 

It  was  hard  to  say  which  capital  had  been  scared 
the  worst. 

The  Governors  of  the  Northern  States  were 
asked  to  send  militia  to  defend  the  capital,  and 
the  front  door  of  the  White  House  was  locked 
every  night  after  ten  o'clock. 


268          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

But  finally  the  Union  generals,  instead  of  call- 
ing for  more  troops,  got  after  General  Jackson, 
and  he  fled  from  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  burning 
the  bridges  behind  him.  It  is  said  that  as  he  and 
his  staff  were  about  to  cross  their  last  bridge  they 
saw  a  mounted  gun  on  the  opposite  side,  manned 
by  a  Union  artilleryman.  Jackson  rode  up  and  in 
clarion  tones  called  out,  "Who  told  you  to  put 
that  gun  there,  sir?  Bring  it  over  here,  sir,  and 
mount  it,  and  report  at  head-quarters  this  evening, 
sir !"  The  artilleryman  unlimbered  the  gun,  and 
while  he  was  placing  it  General  Jackson  and  staff 
crossed  over  and  joined  the  army. 

One  cannot  be  too  careful,  during  a  war,  in  the 
matter  of  obedience  to  orders.  We  should  always 
know  as  nearly  as  possible  whether  our  orders 
come  from  the  proper  authority  or  not. 

No  one  can  help  admiring  this  dashing  officer's 
tour  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  where  he  kept 
three  major-generals  and  sixty  thousand  troops 
awake  nights  with  fifteen  thousand  men,  saved 
Richmond,  scared  Washington  into  fits,  and  pre- 
vented the  union  of  McClellan's  and  McDowell's 
forces.  Had  there  been  more  such  men,  and  a 
little  more  confidence  in  the  great  volume  of  typo- 
graphical errors  called  Confederate  money,  the 
lovely  character  who  pens  these  lines  might  have 
had  a  different  tale  to  tell. 

May  31  and  June  i  occurred  the  battle  of  Fair 


SOME  MORE  FRATRICIDAL  STRIFE.          269 

Oaks,  where  McClellan's  men  floundering  in  the 
mud  of  the  Chickahominy  swamps  were  pounced 
upon  by  General  Johnston,  who  was  wounded  the 
first  day.  On  the  following  day,  as  a  result  of 
this  accident,  Johnston's  men  were  repulsed  in 
disorder. 

General  Robert  E.  Lee,  who  was  now  in  com- 
mand of  the  Confederate  forces,  desired  to  make 
his  army  even  more  offensive  than  it  had  been, 
and  on  June  12  General  Stuart  led  off  with  his 
cavalry,  made  the  entire  circuit  of  the  Union  army, 
saw  how  it  looked  from  behind,  and  returned  to 
Richmond,  much  improved  in  health,  having  had 
several  meals  of  victuals  while  absent. 

Hooker  now  marched  to  where  he  could  see  the 
dome  of  the  court-house  at  Richmond,  but  just 
then  McClellan  heard  that  Jackson  had  been  seen 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Hanover  Court-House, 
and  so  decided  to  change  his  base.  General 
McClellan  was  a  man  of  great  refinement,  and 
would  never  use  the  same  base  over  a  week  at  a 
time. 

He  had  hardly  got  the  base  changed  w^hen  Lee 
fell  upon  his  flank  at  Mechanicsville,  June  26,  and 
the  Seven  Days'  battle  followed.  The  Union 
troops  fought  and  fell  back,  fought  and  fell  back, 
until  Malvern  Hill  was  reached,  where,  worn  with 
marching,  choked  with  dust,  and  broken  down  by 
the  heat,  to  which  they  were  unaccustomed,  they 

23* 


2/0         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

made  their  last  stand,  July  i.  Here  Lee  got  such 
a  reception  that  he  did  not  insist  on  going  any 
farther. 

But  the  Union  army  was  cooped  up  on  the 
James  River.  The  siege  of  Richmond  had  been 
abandoned,  and  the  North  felt  blue  and  discour- 
aged. Three  hundred  thousand  more  men  were 
called  for,  and  it  seemed  that,  as  in  the  South, 
"  the  cradle  and  the  grave  were  to  be  robbed" 
for  more  troops. 

Lee  now  decided  to  take  Washington  and 
butcher  Congress  to  make  a  Roman  holiday. 
General  Pope  met  the  Confederates  August  26, 
and  while  Lee  and  Jackson  were  separated  could 
have  whipped  the  latter  had  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  reinforced  him  as  it  should,  but,  full  of 
malaria  and  foot-sore  with  marching,  it  did  not 
reach  him  in  time,  and  Pope  had  to  fight  the  entire 
Confederate  army  on  that  historic  ground  covered 
with  so  many  unpleasant  memories  and  other 
things,  called  Bull  Run. 

For  the  second  time  the  worn  and  wilted  Union 
army  was  glad  to  get  back  to  Washington,  where 
the  President  was,  and  where  beer  was  only  five 
cents  per  glass. 

Oh,  how  sad  everything  seemed  at  that  time  to 
the  North,  and  how  high  cotton  cloth  was  !  The 
bride  who  hastily  married  her  dear,  one  and  bade 
him  good-by  as  the  bugle  called  him  to  the  war, 


SOME  MORE  FRATRICIDAL  STRIFE. 


271 


pointed  with  pride  to  her  cotton  clothes  as  a  mark 
of  wealth  ;  and  the  middle  classes  were  only  too 
glad  to  have  a  little  cotton  mixed  with  their  woollen 
clothes. 


WHERE   BEER    WAS    ONLY    FIVE   CENTS    PER    GLASS. 

Lee  invaded  Maryland,  and  McClellan,  restored 
to  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  followed 
him,  and  found  a  copy  of  his  order  of  march,  which 
revealed  the  fact  that  only  a  portion  of  the  army 
was  before  him.  So,  overtaking  the  Confederates 
at  South  Mountain,  he  was  ready  for  a  victory, 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

but  waited  one  day  ;  and  in  the 
mountains  Lee  got  his  troops 
united  again,  while  Jack- 
son also  returned.  The 
Union  troops  had  over 
eighty  thousand  in  their 
ranks,  and  nothing  could 
have  been  more  thought- 
ful or  genteel  than  to 
wait  for  the  Confederates 
to  get  as  many  together 
as  possible,  otherwise  the 
battle  might  have  been 
brief  and  unsatisfactory 
to  the  tax-payer  or  news- 
paper subscriber,  who  of 
course  wants  his  money's  worth  when  he  pays  for 
a  battle. 

The  battle  of  Antietam  was  a  very  fierce  one, 
and  undecisive,  yet  it  saved  Washington  from  an 
invasion  by  the  Confederates,  who  would  have 
done  a  good  deal  of  trading  there,  no  doubt,  en- 
tirely on  credit,  thus  injuring  business  very  much 
and  loading  down  Washington  merchants  with 
book  accounts,  which,  added  to  what  they  had 
charged  already  to  members  of  Congress,  would 
have  made  times  in  Washington  extremely  dull. 

General  McClellan,  having  impressed  the  coun- 
try with  the  idea  that  he  was  a  good  bridge- 


HIS   MONEY  S   WORTH    WHEN   HE   PAYS    FOR 
A    BATTLE. 


SOME  MORE  FRATRICIDAL  STRIFE. 


2/3 


builder,  but  a  little  too  dilatory  in  the  matter  of 
carnage,  was  succeeded  by  General  Burnside. 

President  Lincoln  had  written  the  Proclamation 
of  Emancipation  to  the  slaves  in  July,  but  waited 
for  a  victory  before  publishing  it.  Bull  Run  as  a 
victory  was  not  up  to  his  standard  ;  so  when  Lee 
was  driven  from  Maryland  the  document  was 
issued  by  which  all  slaves  in  the  United  States 
became  free  ;  and,  although  thirty-one  years  have 
passed  at  this  writing,  they  are  still  dropping  in 
occasionally  from  the  back  districts  to  inquire 
about  the  truth  of  the  report. 


STILL    DROPPING    IN    OCCASIONALLY    FROM    THE    BACK    DISTRICTS. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

STILL    MORE    FRATERNAL    BLOODSHED,    ON    PRINCIPLE. 

OUTING    FEATURES    DISAPPEAR,  AND  GIVE  PLACE 

TO    STRAINED    RELATIONS    BETWEEN    COMBATANTS, 
WHO    BEGIN    TO    MIX    THINGS. 

ON  December  13  the  year's  business  closed 
with  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg,  under 
the  management  of  General  Burnside. 
Twelve  thousand  Union  troops  were  killed  before 
night  mercifully  shut  down  upon  the  slaughter. 

The  Confederates  were  protected  by  stone  walls 
and  situated  upon  a  commanding  height,  from 
which  they  were  able  to  shoot  down  the  Yankees 
with  perfect  sang-froid  and  deliberation. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  discouragements,  the 
red  brother  fetched  loose  in  Minnesota,  Iowa, 
and  Dakota,  and  massacred  seven  hundred  men, 
women,  and  children.  The  outbreak  was  under 
the  management  of  Little  Crow,  and  was  confined 
to  the  Sioux  Nation.  Thirty-nine  of  these  Indians 
were  hanged  on  the  same  scaffold  at  Mankato, 
Minnesota,  as  a  result  of  this  wholesale  murder. 

This    execution    constitutes   one  of  the  green 

spots  in  the  author's  memory.     In  all  lives  now 
274 


STILL  MORE  FRATERNAL  BLOODSHED.      2?$ 

and  then  an  oasis  is  liable  to  fall.     This  was  oasis 
enough  to  last  the  writer  for  years. 

In  1863  the  Federal  army  numbered  about 
seven  hundred  thousand  men,  and  the  Confed- 
erates about  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 
Still  it  took  two  more  years  to  close  the  war. 

It  is  held  now  by  good  judges  that  the  war  was 
prolonged  by  the  jealousy  existing  between  Union 
commanders  who  wanted  to  be  President  or  some- 
thing else,  and  that  it  took  so  much  time  for  the 
generals  to  keep  their  eyes  on  caucuses  and 
county  papers  at  home  that  they  fought  best  when  1 
surprised  and  attacked  by  the  foe. 

General  Grant  moved  again  on  Vicksburg,  and 
on  May  i,  defeated  Pemberton  at  Fort  Gibson. 
He  also  prevented  a  junction  between  Joseph  E. 
Johnston  and  Pemberton,  and  drove  the  latter  into 
Vicksburg,  securing  the  stopper  so  tightly  that 
after  forty-seven  days  the  garrison  surrendered, 
July  4.  This  fight  cost  the  Confederates  thirty- 
seven  thousand  prisoners,  ten  thousand  killed  and 
wounded,  and  immense  quantities  of  stores.  It 
was  a  warm  time  in  Vicksburg  ;  a  curious  man 
who  stuck  his  hat  out  for  twenty  seconds  above 
the  ramparts  found  fifteen  bullet-holes  in  it 
when  he  took  it  down,  and  when  he  wore  it 
to  church  he  attracted  more  attention  than  the 
collection. 

The  North  now  began  to  sit  up  and  take  notice. 


276 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


Morning  papers  began  to  sell  once  more,  and 
Grant  was  the  name  on  every  tongue. 

The  Mississippi  was  open  to  the  Gulf,  and  the 
Confederacy  was  practically  surrounded. 

Rosecrans  would  have  moved  on  the  enemy, 
but  learned  that  the  foe  had  several  head  of 


ATTRACTED  MORE  ATTENTION  THAN  THE  COLLECTION. 

cavalry  more  than  he  did,  also  a  team  of  artillery. 
At  this  time  John  Morgan  made  a  raid  into  Ohio. 
He  surrounded  Cincinnati,  but  did  not  take  it,  as 
he  was  not  keeping  house  at  the  time  and  hated 
to  pay  storage  on  it.  He  got  to  Parkersburg, 
West  Virginia,  and  was  captured  there  with 
almost  his  entire  force. 


STILL  MORE  FRATERNAL  BLOODSHED.     277 

On  September  19  and  20  occurred  the  battle  of 
Chickamauga.  Longstreet  rushed  into  a  breach 
in  the  Union  line  and  swept  it  with  a  great  big 
besom  of  wrath  with  which  he  had  wisely  pro- 
vided himself  on  starting  out.  Rosecrans  felt 
mortified  when  he  came  to  himself  and  found  that 
his  horse  had  been  so  unmanageable  that  he  had 
carried  him  ten  miles  from  the  carnage. 

But  the  left,  under  Thomas,  held  fast  its  posi- 
tion, and  no  doubt  saved  the  little  band  of  sixty 
thousand  men  which  Rosecrans  commanded  at  the 
time. 

His  army  now  found  itself  shut  up  in  intrench- 
ments,  with  Bragg  on  the  hills  threatening  the 
Union  forces  with  starvation. 

On  November  24-25  a  battle  near  Chattanooga 
took  place,  with  Grant  at  the  head  of  the  Federal 
forces.  Hooker  came  to  join  him  from  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  and  Sherman  hurried  to  his 
standard  from  luka.  Thomas  made  a  dash  and 
captured  Orchard  Knob,  and  Hooker,  on  the  fol- 
lowing day,  charged  Lookout  Mountain. 

This  was  the  most  brilliant,  perhaps,  of  Grant's 
victories.  It  is  known  as  the  "  battle  of  Missionary 
Ridge."  Hooker  had  exceeded  his  prerogative 
and  kept  on  after  capturing  the  crest  of  Lookout 
Mountain,  while  Sherman  was  giving  the  foe 
several  varieties  of  fits,  from  the  north,  when 

Grant  discovered  that  before  him  the  line  was 

24 


2/8          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

being  weakened  in  order  to  help  the  Confederate 
flanks.  So  with  Thomas  he  crossed  through  the 
first  line  and  over  the  rifle-pits,  forgot  that  he  had 
intended  to  halt  and  reform,  and  concluded  to 
wait  and  reform  after  the  war  was  over,  when  he 
should  have  more  time,  and  that  night  along  the 
entire  line  of  heights  the  camp-fires  of  the  Union 
army  winked  at  one  another  in  ghoulish  glee. 

The  army  under  Bragg  was  routed,  and  Bragg 
resigned  his  command. 

Burnside,  who  had  been  relieved  of  the  com- 
mand of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  was  sent  to 
East  Tennessee,  where  the  brave  but  frost-bitten 
troops  of  Longstreet  shut  him  up  at  Knoxville 
and  compelled  him  to  board  at  the  railroad  eating- 
house  there. 

Sherman's  worn  and  weary  boys  were  now  or- 
dered at  once  to  the  relief  of  Burnside,  and  Long- 
street,  getting  word  of  it,  made  a  furious  assault 
on  the  former,  who  repulsed  him  with  loss,  and  he 
went  away  from  there  as  Sherman  approached 
from  the  west. 

Hooker  had  succeeded  Burnside  in  the  com- 
mand of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  he  judged 
that,  as  Lee  was  now  left  with  but  sixty  thousand 
men,  while  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  contained 
one  hundred  thousand  who  craved  out-of-door 
exercise,  he  might  do  well  to  go  and  get  Lee, 
returning  in  the  cool  of  the  evening.  Lee,  how- 


STILL  MORE  FRATERNAL   BLOODSHED.     279 

ever,  accomplished  the  division  of  his  army  while 
concealed  in  the  woods  and  sent  Jackson  to  fall 
on  Hooker's  rear.  The  close  of  the  fight  found 
Hooker  on  his  old  camping-ground  opposite  Fred- 


WHERE    AM    I?" 


ericksburg,  murmuring  to  himself,  in  a  dazed  sort 
of  way,  "Where  am  I?"  Lee  felt  so  good  over 
this  that  he  decided  to  go  North  and  get  something 
to  eat.  He  also  decided  to  get  catalogues  and 
price-lists  of  Philadelphia  and  New  York  while 
there.  Threatening  Baltimore  in  order  to  mislead 


280         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

General  Meade,  who  was  now  in  command  of  the 
Federals,  Lee  struck  into  Pennsylvania  and  met 
with  the  Union  cavalry  a  little  west  of  Gettysburg 
on  the  Chambersburg  road.  It  is  said  that  Gettys- 
burg was  not  intended  by  either  army  as  the  site 
for  the  battle,  Lee  hoping  to  avoid  a  fight,  depend- 
ing as  he  did  on  the  well-known  hospitality  of  the 
Pennsylvanians,  and  Meade  intending  to  have  the 
fight  at  Pipe  Creek,  where  he  had  some  property. 

July  1-2-3  were  the  dates  of  this  memorable 
battle.  The  first  day  was  rather  favorable  to  Lee, 
quite  a  number  of  Yankee  prisoners  being  taken 
while  they  were  lost  in  the  crowded  streets  of 
Gettysburg. 

The  second  day  was  opened  by  Longstreet,  who 
charged  the  Union  left,  and  ran  across  Sickles, 
who  had  by  mistake  formed  in  the  way  of  Meade' s 
intended  line  of  battle.  They  outflanked  him, 
but,  as  they  swung  around  him,  Warren  met  them 
with  a  diabolical  welcome,  which  stayed  them. 
Sickles  found  himself  on  Cemetery  Ridge,  while 
the  Confederates  under  Ewell  were  on  Gulp's  Hill. 

On  the  third  day,  at  one  P.M.,  Lee  opened  with 

one  hundred  and  fifty  guns  on  Cemetery  Ridge. 

The  air  was  a  hornet's  nest  of  screaming  shells 

with  fiery  tails.     As  it  lulled  a  little,  out  of  the 

woods  came  eighteen  thousand  men  in  battle-array 

J  \  extending  over  a  mile  in  length.     The  Yankees 

»  knew  a  good  thing  when  they  saw  it,  and  they 


STILL  MORE  FRATERNAL  BLOODSHED.     281 

paused  to  admire  this  beautiful  gathering  of  foe- 
men  in  whose  veins  there  flowed  the  same  blood 
as  in  their  own,  and  whose  ancestors  had  stood 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  their  own  in  a  hundred 
battles  for  freedom. 

Their  sentiment  gave  place  to  shouts  of  battle, 
and  into  the  silent  phalanx  a  hundred  guns  poured 
their  red-hot  messages  of  death.  The  golden 
grain  was  drenched  with  the  blood  of  men  no  less 
brave  because  they  were  not  victorious,  and  the 
rich  fields  of  Pennsylvania  drank  with  thirsty 
eagerness  the  warm  blood  of  many  a  Southern 
son. 

Yet  they  moved  onward.  Volley  after  volley 
of  musketry  mowed  them  down,  and  the  puny 
reaper  in  the  neglected  grain  gave  place  to  the 
grim  reaper  Death,  all  down  that  unwavering  line 
of  gray  and  brown. 

They  marched  up  to  the  Union  breastworks, 
bayoneted  the  gunners  at  their  work,  planted  their 
flags  on  the  parapets,  and,  while  the  Federals  con- 
verged from  every  point  to  this,  exploding  powder 
burned  the  faces  of  these  contending  hosts,  who, 
hand  to  hand,  fought  each  other  to  death,  while 
far-away  widows  and  orphans  multiplied  to  mourn 
through  the  coming  years  over  this  ghastly  folly 
of  civil  war. 

Whole  companies  of  the  Confederates  rushed 
as  prisoners  into  the  arms  of  their  enemies,  and 

24* 


282         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  shattered  remnant  of  the  battered  foe  retreated 
from  the  field. 

While  all  this  was  going  on  in  Pennsylvania, 
Pemberton  was  arranging  terms  of  surrender  at 
Vicksburg,  and  from  this  date  onward  the  Con- 
federacy began  to  wobble  in  its  orbit,  and  the 
President  of  this  ill-advised  but  bitterly  punished 
scheme  began  to  wish  that  he  had  been  in  Canada 
when  the  war  broke  out. 

In  April  of  the  same  year  Admiral  Dupont,  an 
able  seaman  with  massive  whiskers,  decided  to 
run  the  fortifications  at  Charleston  with  iron-clads, 
but  the  Charleston  people  thought  they  could  run 
them  themselves.  So  they  drove  him  back  after 
the  sinking  of  the  Kennebec  and  the  serious 
injury  of  all  the  other  vessels. 

General  Gillmore  then  landed  with  troops.  Fort 
Wagner  was  captured.  The  54th  Regiment  of 
colored  troops,  the  finest  organized  in  the  Free 
States,  took  a  prominent  part  and  fought  with 
great  coolness  and  bravery.  By  December  there 
were  fifty  thousand  colored  troops  enlisted,  and 
before  the  war  closed  over  two  hundred  thousand. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  made  the  Yankee 
unpopular  at  the  time  in  the  best  society  of  the 
South. 

General  Gillmore  attempted  to  capture  Sumter, 
and  did  reduce  it  to  a  pulp,  but  when  he  went  to 
gather  it  he  was  met  by  a  garrison  still  concealed 


STILL  MORE  FRATERNAL  BLOODSHED.     283 


in  the  basement,  and  peppered 
with  volleys  of  hot  shingle- 
nails  and  other  bric-a-brac, 
which  forced  him 
to  retire  with  loss. 

He  said  after- 
ward that  Fort 
Sumter  was  not 
desirable  any- 
how. 

This  closed 
the  most  mem- 
orable year  of 
the  war,  with  the 
price  of  living  at 
the  South  run- 
ning up  to  eight 
hundred  and  nine 
hundred  dollars 
per  day,  and  cur- 
rency depreciating  so  rapidly  that  one's  salary 
had  to  be  advaced  every  morning  in  order  to  keep 
pace  with  the  price  of  mule-steaks. 


PRICE   OF    LIVING   RUNNING    UP   TO    EIGHT   HUNDRED   AND    NINE 
HUNDRED    DOLLARS    PER    DAY. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

LAST    YEAR    OF    THE    DISAGREEABLE    WAR. 

GENERAL  GRANT  was  now  in  command 
of  all  the  Union  troops,  and  in  1864-5  tne 
plan  of  operation  was  to  prevent  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Confederates, — General  Grant  seeking 
to  interest  the  army  in  Virginia  under  General 
Lee,  and  General  Sherman  the  army  of  General 
Joseph  E.  Johnston  in  Georgia. 

Sherman  started  at  once,  and  came  upon 
Johnston  located  on  almost  impregnable  hills  all 
the  way  to  Atlanta.  The  battles  of  Dalton, 
Resaca,  Dallas,  Lost  Mountain,  and  Kenesaw 
Mountain  preceded  Johnston's  retreat  to  the  in- 
trenchments  of  Atlanta,  July  10,  Sherman  having 
been  on  the  move  since  early  in  May,  1864. 

Jefferson  Davis,  disgusted  with  Johnston,  placed 
Hood  in  command,  who  made  three  heroic  attacks 
upon  the  Union  troops,  but  was  repulsed.  Sher- 
man now  gathered  fifteen  days'  rations  from  the 
neighbors,  and,  throwing  his  forces  across  Hood's 
line  of  supplies,  compelled  him  to  evacuate  the 
city. 

The  historian  says  that  Sherman  was  entirely 
284 


LAST  YEAR    OF  THE  DISAGREEABLE  WAR.    285 

supplied  from  Nashville  via  railroad  during  this 
trip,  but  the  author  knows  of  his  own  personal 
knowledge  that  there  were  times  when  he  got  his 
fresh  provisions  along  the  road. 

This    expedition    cost   the    Union    army  thirty 
thousand  men   and   the   Confederates   thirty-five 


GETTING    FRESH"  PROVISIONS    ALONG   THE   ROAD. 

thousand.  Besides,  Georgia  was  the  Confederacy, 
so  far  as  arms,  grain,  etc.,  were  concerned.  Sher- 
man attributed  much  of  his  success  to  the  fact  that 
he  could  repair  and  operate  the  railroad  so  rapidly. 
Among  his  men  were  Yankee  machinists  and  en- 
gineers, who  were  as  necessary  as  courageous 
fighters. 


286          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

"  We  are  held  here  during  many  priceless 
hours,"  said  the  general,  "  because  the  enemy  has 
spoiled  this  passenger  engine.  Who  knows  any 
thing  about  repairing  an  engine?" 

"I  do,"  said  a  dusty  tramp  in  blue.  "I  can 
repair  this  one  in  an  hour." 

"What  makes  you  think  so?" 

"Well,  I  made  it." 

This  was  one  of  the  strong  features  of  Sher- 
man's army.  Among  the  hundred  thousand  who 
composed  it  there  were  so  many  active  brains  and 
skilled  hands  that  the  toot  of  the  engine  caught 
the  heels  of  the  last  echoing  shout  of  the  battle. 

Learning  that  Hood  proposed  to  invade  Tennes- 
see, Sherman  prepared  to  march  across  Georgia 
to  the  sea,  and  if  necessary  to  tramp  through  the 
Atlantic  States. 

Hood  was  sorry  afterwards  that  he  invaded 
Tennessee.  He  shut  Thomas  up  in  Nashville 
after  a  battle  with  Schofield,  and  kept  the  former 
in-doors  for  two  weeks,  when  all  of  a  sudden 
Thomas  exclaimed,  "  Air  !  air  !  give  me  air  !"  and 
came  out,  throwing  Hood  into  headlong  flight, 
when  the  Union  cavalry  fell  on  his  rear,  followed 
by  the  infantry,  and  the  forty  thousand  Confed- 
erates became  a  scattered  and  discouraged  mob 
spread  out  over  several  counties. 

The  burning  of  Atlanta  preceded  Sherman's 
march,  and,  though  one  of  the  saddest  features  of 


LAST   YEAR    OF  THE  DISAGREEABLE  WAR.    287 

the  war,  was  believed  to  be  a  military  necessity. 
Those  who  declare  war  hoping  to  have  a  summer's 
outing  thereby  may  live  to  regret  it  for  many 
bitter  years. 

On  November  16,  Sherman  started,  his  army 
moving  in  four  columns,  constituting  altogether  a 
column  of  fire  by  night,  and  a  pillar  of  cloud  and 
dust  by  day.  Kilpatrick's  cavalry  scoured  the 
country  like  a  mass  meeting  of  ubiquitous  little 
black  Tennessee  hornets. 

In  five  weeks  Sherman  had  marched  three  hun- 
dred miles,  had  destroyed  two  railroads,  had 
stormed  Fort  McAllister,  and  had  captured  Sa- 
vannah. 

On  the  5th  and  6th  of  May,  1864,  occurred  the 
battle  of  the  Wilderness,  near  the  old  battle- 
ground of  Chancellorsville.  No  one  could  de- 
scribe it,  for  it  was  fought  in  the  dense  woods, 
and  the  two  days  of  useless  butchery  with  not  the 
slightest  signs  of  civilized  warfare  sickened  both 
armies,  and,  with  no  victory  for  either,  they  retired 
to  their  intrenchments. 

Grant,  instead  of  retreating,  however,  quietly 
passed  the  flank  of  the  Confederates  and  started 
for  Spottsylvania  Court-House,  where  a  battle 
occurred  May  8—12. 

Here  the  two  armies  fought  five  days  without 
any  advantage  to  either.  It  was  at  this  time  that 
Grant  sent  his  celebrated  despatch  stating  that  he 


288         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

11  proposed  to  fight  it  out  on  this  line  if  it  took  all 
summer." 

Finally  he  sought  to  turn  Lee's  right  flank. 
June  8,  the  battle  of  Cold  Harbor  followed  this 
movement.  The  Union  forces  were  shot  down  in 
the  mire  and  brush  by  Lee's  troops,  now  snugly 
in  out  of  the  wet,  behind  the  Cold  Harbor  de- 
fences. One  historian  says  that  in  twenty  minutes 
ten  thousand  Yankee  troops  were  killed  ;  though 
Badeau,  whose  accuracy  in  counting  dead  has 
always  been  perfectly  marvellous,  admits  only 
seven  thousand  in  all. 

Grant  now  turned  his  attention  towards  Peters- 
burg, but  Lee  was  there  before  him  and  intrenched, 
so  the  Union  army  had  to  intrench.  This  only 
postponed  the  evil  day,  however. 

Things  now  shaped  themselves  into  a  siege  of 
Richmond,  with  Petersburg  as  the  first  outpost  of 
the  besieged  capital. 

On  the  3Oth  of  July,  eight  thousand  pounds  of 
powder  were  carefully  inserted  under  a  Confed- 
erate fort  and  the  entire  thing  hoisted  in  the  air, 
leaving  a  huge  hole,  in  which,  a  few  hours  after- 
wards, many  a  boy  in  blue  met  his  death,  for  in 
the  assault  which  followed  the  explosion  the  Union 
soldiers  were  mowed  down  by  the  concentrated 
fire  of  the  Confederates.  The  Federals  threw 
away  four  thousand  lives  here. 

On  the   1 8th  of  August  the  Weldon  Railroad 


LAST  YEAR   OF  THE  DISAGREEABLE  WAR.    289 

was  captured,  which  was  a  great  advantage  to 
Grant,  and,  though  several  efforts  were  made  to 
recapture  it,  they  were  unsuccessful. 


PAUSING    TO    GET   LAUNDRY-WORK    DONE 


General  Early  was  delegated  to  threaten  Wash- 
ington and  scare  the  able  officers  of  the  army  who 
were  stopping  there  at  that  time  talking  politics 
and  abusing  Grant.  He  defeated  General  Wal- 
lace at  Monocacy  River,  and  appeared  before  Fort 


290         HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Stevens,  one  of  the  defences  of  Washington,  July 
1 1 .  Had  he  whooped  right  along  instead  of  paus- 
ing a  day  somewhere  to  get  laundry-work  done 
before  entering  Washington,  he  would  easily  have 
captured  the  city. 

Reinforcements,  however,  got  there  ahead  of 
him,  and  he  had  to  go  back.  He  sent  a  force  of 
cavalry  into  Pennsylvania,  where  they  captured 
Chambersburg  and  burned  it  on  failure  of  the 
town  trustees  to  pay  five  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars ransom. 

General  Sheridan  was  placed  in  charge  of  the 
troops  here,  and  defeated  Early  at  Winchester, 
riding  twenty  miles  in  twenty  minutes,  as  per 
poem.  At  Fisher's  Hill  he  was  also  victorious. 
He  devastated  the  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah  to 
such  a  degree  that  a  crow  passing  the  entire 
length  of  the  valley  had  to  carry  his  dinner  with 
him. 

It  was,  however,  at  the  battle  of  Cedar  Creek 
that  Sheridan  was  twenty  miles  away,  according 
to  historical  prose.  Why  he  was  twenty  miles 
away,  various  and  conflicting  reasons  are  given, 
but  on  his  good  horse  Rienzi  he  arrived  in  time  to 
turn  defeat  and  rout  into  victory  and  hilarity. 

Rienzi,  after  the  war,  died  in  eleven  States. 
He  was  a  black  horse,  with  a  saddle-gall  and  a 
flashing  eye. 

He  passed  away  at  his  home  in  Chicago  at  last 


LAST   YEAR    OF  THE  DISAGREEABLE  WAR.    291 

in  poverty  while  waiting  for  a  pension  applied  for 
on  the  grounds  of  founder  and  lampers  brought 
on  by  eating  too  heartily  after  the  battle  and  while 
warm,  but  in  the  line  of  duty. 

The  Red  River  campaign  under  General  Banks 
was  a  joint  naval  and  land  expedition,  resulting 
in  the  capture  of  Fort  de  Russy,  March  14,  after 
which,  April  8,  the  troops  marching  towards 
Shreveport  in  very  open  order,  single  file  or 
holding  one  another's  hands  and  singing  "John 
Brown's  Body,"  were  attacked  by  General  Dick 
Taylor,  and  if  Washington  had  not  been  so  far 
away  and  through  a  hostile  country,  Bull  Run 
would  have  had  another  rival.  But  the  boys  ral- 
lied, and  next  day  repulsed  the  Confederates, 
after  which  they  returned  to  New  Orleans,  where 
board  was  more  reasonable.  General  Banks  ob- 
tained quite  a  relief  at  this  time  :  he  was  relieved 
of  his  command. 

August  5,  Commodore  Farragut  captured  Mo- 
bile, after  a  neat  and  attractive  naval  fight,  and 
on  the  24th  and  25th  of  December  Commodore 
Porter  and  General  Butler  started  out  to  take 
Fort  Fisher.  After  two  days'  bombardment,  But- 
ler decided  that  there  were  other  forts  to  be  had 
on  better  terms,  and  returned.  Afterwards  Gen- 
eral Terry  commanded  the  second  expedition, 
Porter  having  remained  on  hand  with  his  vessels 
to  assist.  January  15,  1865,  the  most  heroic  fight- 


292          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

ing  on  both  sides  resulted,  and  at  last,  completely 
hemmed  in,  the  brave  and  battered  garrison  sur- 
rendered ;  but  no  one  who  was  there  need  blush 
to  say  so,  even  to-day. 

At  the  South  at  this  time  coffee  was  fifty  dollars 
a  pound  and  gloves  were  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  a  pair.  Flour  was  forty  dollars  a  barrel  ; 
but  you  could  get  a  barrel  of  currency  for  less 
than  that. 

Money  was  plenty,  but  what  was  needed  seemed 
to  be  confidence.  Running  the  blockade  was  not 
profitable  at  that  time,  since  over  fifteen  hundred 
head  of  Confederate  vessels  were  captured  during 
the  war. 

The  capture  of  Fort  Fisher  closed  the  last  port 
of  the  South,  and  left  the  Confederacy  no  show 
with  foreign  Powers  or  markets. 

The  Alabama  was  an  armed  steam-ship,  and 
the  most  unpleasant  feature  of  the  war  to  the 
Federal  government,  especially  as  she  had  more 
sympathy  and  aid  in  England  than  was  asked  for 
or  expected  by  the  Unionists.  However,  England 
has  since  repaid  all  this  loss  in  various  ways.  She 
has  put  from  five  to  eight  million  dollars  into  cattle 
on  the  plains  of  the  Northwest,  where  the  skeletons 
of  same  may  be  found  bleaching  in  the  summer 
sun ;  and  I  am  personally  acquainted  with  six 
Americans  now  visiting  England  who  can  borrow 
enough  in  a  year  to  make  up  all  the  losses  sus- 


LAST  YEAR   OF   THE  DISAGREEABLE  WAR.    293 

tained  through  the  Alabama   and  other  neutral 
vessels. 

Captain  Semmes  commanded  the  Alabama,  and 
off  Cherbourg  he  sent  a  challenge  to  the  Kear- 
sarge,  commanded  by  Captain  Winslow,  who  ac- 
cepted it,  and  so  worked  his  vessel  that  the  Ala- 
bama had  to  move  round  him  in  a  circle,  while  he 
filled  her  up  with  iron,  lead,  copper,  tin,  German 
silver,  glass,  nails,  putty,  paint,  varnishes,  and 


PERSONALLY    ACQUAINTED    WITH    SIX    AMERICANS. 

dye-stuff.  At  the  seventh  rotation  the  Alabama 
ran  up  the  white  flag  and  sunk  with  a  low  mellow 
plunk.  The  crew  was  rescued  by  Captain  Wins- 
low  and  the  English  yacht  Deerhound,  the  latter 
taking  Semmes  and  starting  for  England. 

This  matter,  however,  was  settled  in  after-years. 

The  care  of  the  sick,  the  dying,  and  the  dead 
in  the  Union  armies  was  almost  entirely  under 
the  eye  of  the  merciful  and  charitable,  loyal  and 

loving   members  of  the   Sanitary  and   Christian 

25* 


294         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Commissions,  whose  work  and  its  memory  kept 
green  in  the  hearts  of  the  survivors  and  their 
children  will  be  monument  enough  for  the  coming 
centuries. 

In  July,  1864,  the  debt  of  the  country  was  two 
billion  dollars  and  twenty  cents.  Two  dollars  and 
ninety  cents  in  greenbacks  would  buy  a  reluctant 
gold  dollar. 

Still,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  re-elected  against 
George  B.  McClellan,  the  Democratic  candidate, 
who  carried  only  three  States.  This  was  endorse- 
ment enough  for  the  policy  of  President  Lincoln. 

Sherman's  army  of  sixty  thousand,  after  a 
month's  rest  at  Savannah,  started  north  to  unite 
with  Grant  in  the  final  blow.  "  Before  it  was 
terror,  behind  it  ashes." 

Columbia  was  captured  February  17,  and 
burned,  without  Sherman's  authority,  the  night 
following.  Charleston  was  evacuated  the  next 
day.  Johnston  was  recalled  to  take  command, 
and  opposed  the  march  of  Sherman,  but  was 
driven  back  after  fierce  engagements  at  Benton- 
ville  and  Averysboro.  On  March  25  Lee  de- 
cided to  attack  Grant,  and,  while  the  latter  was 
busy,  get  out  of  Richmond  and  join  Johnston,  but 
when  this  battle,  known  as  the  attack  on  Fort 
Steadman,  was  over,  Grant's  hold  was  tighter 
than  ever. 

Sheridan    attacked   Lee's    rear   with   a    heavy 


LAST  YEAR   OF   THE  DISAGREEABLE  WAR.    295 

force,  and  at  Five  Forks,  April  i,  the  surprised 
garrison  was  defeated  with  five  thousand  cap- 
tured. The  next  day  the  entire  Union  army  ad- 
vanced, and  the  line  of  Confederate  intrenchments 
was  broken.  On  the  following  day  Petersburg 
and  Richmond  were  evacuated,  but  Mr.  Davis 
was  not  there.  He  had  gone  away.  Rather  than 
meet  General  Grant  and  entertain  him  when  there 
was  no  pie  in  the  house,  he  and  the  Treasury 
had  escaped  from  the  haunts  of  man,  wishing  to 
commune  with  nature  for  a  while.  He  was  cap- 
tured at  Irwinsville*,  Georgia,  under  peculiar  and 
rather  amusing  circumstances. 

He  was  never  punished,  with  the  exception  per- 
haps that  he  published  a  book  and  did  not  realize 
anything  from  it. 

Lee  fled  to  the  westward,  but  was  pursued  by 
the  triumphant  Federals,  especially  by  Sheridan, 
whose  cavalry  hung  on  his  flanks  day  and  night. 
Food  failed  the  fleeing  foe,  and  the  young  shoots 
of  trees  for  food  and  the  larger  shoots  of  the 
artillery  between  meals  were  too  much  for  that 
proud  army,  once  so  strong  and  confident. 

Let  us  not  dwell  on  the  particulars. 

As  Sheridan  planted  his  cavalry  squarely  across 
Lee's  path  of  retreat,  the  worn  but  heroic  tatters 
of  a  proud  army  prepared  to  sell  themselves  for  a 
bloody  ransom  and  go  down  fighting,  but  Grant 
had  demanded  their  surrender,  and,  seeing  back 


296          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

of  the  galling,  skirmishing  cavalry  solid  walls  of 
confident  infantry,  the  terms  of  surrender  were 
accepted  by  General  Lee,  and  April  9  the  Con- 
federate army  stacked  its  arms  near  Appomattox 
Court-House. 

The  Confederate  war  debt  was  never  paid,  for 
some  reason  or  other,  but  the  Federal  debt  when 
it  was  feeling  the  best  amounted  to  two  billion 
eight  hundred  and  forty-four  million  dollars.  One 
million  men  lost  their  lives. 

Was  it  worth  while  ? 

In  the  midst  of  the  general  rejoicing,  President 
Lincoln  was  assassinated  by  John  Wilkes  Booth 
at  Ford's  Theatre,  April  14.  The  assassin  was 
captured  in  a  dying  condition  in  a  burning  barn, 
through  a  crack  in  the  boarding  of  which  he  had 
been  shot  by  a  soldier  named  Boston  Corbett. 
He  died  with  no  sympathetic  applause  to  soothe 
the  dull,  cold  ear  of  death. 

West  Virginia  was  admitted  to  the  Union  in 
1863,  and  Nevada  in  1864. 

The  following  chapters  will  be  devoted  to  more 
peaceful  details,  while  we  cheerfully  close  the  sor- 
rowful pages  in  which  we  have  confessed  that,  with 
all  our  greatness  as  a  nation,  we  could  not  stay 
the  tide  of  war. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

TOO     MUCH     LIBERTY    IN     PLACES    AND.    NOT    ENOUGH 

ELSEWHERE. THOUGHTS    ON    THE     LATE    WAR 

WHO  IS  THE  BIGGER  ASS,  THE  MAN  WHO  WILL 
NOT  FORGIVE  AND  FORGET,  OR  THE  MAWKISH 
AND  MOIST-EYED  SNIVELLER  WHO  WANTS  TO  DO 
THAT  ALL  THE  TIME? 

WHEN  Patrick  Henry  put  his  old  cast-iron 
spectacles  on  the  top  of  his  head  and 
whooped  for  liberty,  he  did  not  know 
that  some  day  we  should  have  more  of  it  than  we 
knew  what  to  do  with.  He  little  dreamed  that 
the  time  would  come  when  we  should  have  more 
liberty  than  we  could  pay  for.  When  Mr.  Henry 
sawed  the  air  and  shouted  for  liberty  or  death,  I 
do  not  believe  that  he  knew  the  time  would  come 
when  Liberty  would  stand  on  Bedloe's  Island  and 
yearn  for  rest  and  change  of  scene. 

It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  too  much  liberty 
in  this  country  in  some  ways.  We  have  more 
liberty  than  we  have  money.  We  guarantee  that 
every  man  in  America  shall  fill  himself  up  full  of 
liberty  at  our  expense,  and  the  less  of  an  Amer- 
ican he  is  the  more  liberty  he  can  have.  Should 

297 


298 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


he  desire  to  enjoy  himself,  all  he  needs  is  a  slight 
foreign  accent  and  a  willingness  to  mix  up  with 


PATRICK    HENRY  S   GREAT   SPEECH. 


politics  as  soon  as  he  can  get  his  baggage  off  the 
steamer.  The  more  I  study  American  institutions 
the  more  I  regret  that  I  was  not  born  a  foreigner, 


THOUGHTS  ON   THE  LATE    WAR. 


299 


so  that  I  could  have  something  to  say  about  the 
management  of  our  great  land.  If  I  could  not 
be  a  foreigner,  I  believe  I  should  prefer  to  be  a 
policeman  or  an  Indian  not  taxed. 

I  am  often  led  to  ask,  in  the  language  of  the 
poet,  "  Is  civilization  a  failure,  and  is  the  Caucasian 
played  out?" 

Almost  every  one  can  have  a  good  deal  of 
fun    in   America    except    the 
American.     He  seems  to  be 
so  busy  paying  his  taxes  that 
he  has  very  little  time  to  vote, 
or  to  mingle  in  society's  giddy 
whirl,  or  to  mix  up  with  the 
nobility.    That  is  the  reason 
why    the    alien    who    rides 
across  the  United  States  in 
the  "  Limited    Mail"  and 
writes  a  book  about  us 
before    breakfast    won- 
ders why  we  are  always 
in  a  hurry.     That  also 
is    the   reason   why  we 
have  to  throw  our  meals 
into  ourselves  with  such 
despatch,   and   hardly 
have   time  to   maintain 
a  warm  personal  friend- 
ship with  our  families. 


THE    MORE 


REGRET    THAT    I    WAS    NOT    BORN   A 
FOREIGNER. 


300         HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

We  do  not  care  much  for  wealth,  but  we  must 
have  freedom,  and  freedom  costs  money.  We 
have  advertised  to  furnish  a  bunch  of  freedom  to 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  who  comes  to  our 
shores,  and  we  are  going  to  deliver  the  goods 
whether  we  have  any  left  for  ourselves  or  not. 

What  would  the  great  world  beyond  the  seas 
say  to  us  if  some  day  the  blue-eyed  Oriental,  with 
his  heart  full  of  love  for  our  female  seminaries  and 
our  old  women's  homes,  should  land  upon  our 
coasts  and  crave  freedom  in  car-load  lots  but  find 
that  we  were  using  all  the  liberty  ourselves  ?  But 
what  do  we  want  of  liberty,  anyhow  ?  What 
could  we  do  with  it  if  we  had  it  ?  It  takes  a  man 
of  leisure  to  enjoy  liberty,  and  we  have' no  leisure 
whatever.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  keep  in  the  house 
for  the  use  of  guests,  but  we  don't  need  it  for 
ourselves. 

Therefore  we  have  a  statue  of  Liberty  Enlight- 
ening the  World,  because  it  shows  that  we  keep 
Liberty  on  tap  winter  and  summer.  We  want 
the  whole  broad  world  to  remember  that  when 
it  gets  tired  of  oppression  it  can  come  here  to 
America  and  oppress  us.  We  are  used  to  it,  and 
we  rather  like  it.  If  we  don't  like  it,  we  can  get 
on  the  steamer  and  go  abroad,  where  we  may 
visit  the  effete  monarchies  and  have  a  high  old 
time. 

The  sight  of  the  Goddess  of  Liberty  standing 


THOUGHTS  ON  THE  LATE    WAR. 


3OI 


there  in  New  York  harbor  night  and  day,  bathing 
her  feet  in  the  rippling  sea,  is  a  good  thing.  It  is 
first-rate.  It  may  also  be  productive  of  good  in  a 
direction  that  many  have  not  thought  of.  As  she 


MAY    BE   LED    TO    TRY    IT    ON    HIMSELF. 


stands  there  day  after  day,  bathing  her  feet  in  the 
broad  Atlantic,  perhaps  some  moss-grown  alien 
landing  on  our  shore  and  moving  toward  the  Far 
West  may  fix  the  bright  picture  in  his  so-called 
mind,  and,  remembering  how,  on  his  arrival  in 
New  York,  he  saw  Liberty  bathing  her  feet  with 


26 


302          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

impunity,  he  may  be  led  in  after-years  to  try  it  on 
himself. 

More  citizens  and  less  voters  will  some  day  be 
adopted  as  the  motto  of  the  Republic. 

One  reference  to  the  late  war,  and  I  will  close. 
I  want  to  refer  especially  to  the  chronic  reconciler 
who  when  war  was  declared  was  not  involved  in 
it,  but  who  now  improves  every  opportunity,  espe- 
cially near  election-time,  to  get  out  a  tired  olive- 
branch  and  make  a  tableau  of  himself.  He  is 
worse  than  the  man  who  cannot  forgive  or  forget. 

The  growth  of  reconciliation  between  the  North 
and  the  South  is  the  slow  growth  of  years,  and 
the  work  of  generations.  When  any  man,  North 
or  South,  in  a  public  place  takes  occasion  to  talk 
in  a  mellow  and  mawkish  way  of  the  great  love 
he  now  has  for  his  old  enemy,  watch  him.  He  is 
getting  ready  to  ask  a  favor.  There  is  a  beau- 
tiful, poetic  idea  in  the  reunion  of  two  contending 
and  shattered  elements  of  a  great  nation.  There 
is  something  beautifully  pathetic  in  the  picture  of 
the  North  and  the  South  clasped  in  each  other's 
arms  and  shedding  a  torrent  of  hot  tears  down 
each  other's  backs  as  it  is  done  in  a  play,  but  do 
you  believe  that  the  aged  mothers  on  either  side 
have  learned  to  love  the  foe  with  much  violence 
yet?  Do  you  believe  that  the  crippled  veteran, 
North  or  South,  now  passionately  loves  the  adver- 
sary who  robbed  him  of  his  glorious  youth,  made 


THOUGHTS  ON  THE  LATE    WAR.  303 

him  a  feeble  ruin,  and  mowed  down  his  comrades 
with  swift  death  ?  Do  you  believe  that  either 
warrior  is  so  fickle  that  he  has  entirely  deserted 
the  cause  for  which  he  fought  ?  Even  the  victor 
cannot  ask  that. 

"Let  the  gentle  finger  of  time  undo,  so  far  as 
may  be,  the  devastation  wrought  by  the  war,  and 
let  succeeding  generations  seek  through  natural 
methods  to  reunite  the  business  and  the  traffic 
that  were  interrupted  by  the  war.  Let  the  South 
guarantee  to  the  Northern  investor  security  to 
himself  and  his  investment,  and  he  will  not  ask 
for  the  love  which  we  read  of  in  speeches  but  do 
not  expect  and  do  not  find  in  the  South. 

"Two  warring  parents  on  the  verge  of  divorce 
have  been  saved  the  disgrace  of  separation  and 
agreed  to  maintain  their  household  for  the  sake 
of  their  children.  Their  love  has  been  questioned 
by  the  world,  and  their  relations  strained.  Is  it 
not  bad  taste  for  them  to  pose  in  public  and 
make  a  cheap  Romeo  and  Juliet  tableau  of  them- 
selves ? 

"  Let  time  and  merciful  silence  obliterate  the 
scars  of  war,  and  succeeding  generations,  fostered 
by  the  smiles  of  national  prosperity,  soften  the 
bitterness  of  the  past  and  mellow  the  memory  of 
a  mighty  struggle  in  which  each  contending  host 
called  upon  Almighty  God  to  sustain  the  cause 
which  it  honestly  believed  to  be  just." 


304         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Let  us  be  contented  during  this  generation  with 
the  assurance  that  geographically  the  Union  has 
been  preserved,  and  that  each  contending  warrior 
has  once  more  taken  up  the  peaceful  struggle  for 
bettering  and  beautifying  the  home  so  bravely 
fought  for. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

RECONSTRUCTION    WITHOUT    PAIN ADMINISTRATIONS 

OF   JOHNSON    AND    GRANT. 

IT  was  feared  that  the  return  of  a  million  Fed- 
eral soldiers  to  their  homes  after  the  four 
years  of  war  would  make  serious  trouble 
in  the  North,  but  they  were  very  shortly  adjusted 
to  their  new  lives  and  attending  to  the  duties 
which  peace  imposed  upon  them. 

The  war  of  the  Rebellion  was  disastrous  to 
nearly  every  branch  of  trade,  but  those  who  re- 
mained at  home  to  write  the  war-songs  of  the 
North  did  well.  Some  of  these  efforts  were 
worthy,  and,  buoyed  up  by  a  general  feeling  of 
robust  patriotism,  they  floated  on  to  success  ;  but 
few  have  stood  the  test  of  years  and  monotonous 
peace.  The  author  of  "  Mother,  I  am  hollow  to 
the  ground"  is  just  depositing  his  profits  from  its 
sale  in  the  picture  given  on  next  page.  The 
second  one,  wearing  the  cape-overcoat  tragedy 
air,  wrote  "Who  will  be  my  laundress  now?" 

Andrew  Johnson  succeeded  to  Mr.  Lincoln's 
seat,  having  acted  before  as  his  vice. 

A  great   review  of  the   army,   lasting   twelve 

u  26*  305 


306 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


hours,  was  arranged  to  take  place  in  Washington, 
consisting  of  the  armies  of  Grant  and  Sherman. 
It  was  reviewed  by  the  President  and  Cabinet ;  it 
extended  over  thirty  miles  twenty  men  deep,  and 
constituted  about  one-fifth  of  the  Northern  army 
at  the  time  peace  was  declared. 


THE   STAY-AT-HOMES   WHO   WROTE   WAR-SONGS. 

President  Johnson  recognized  the  State  govern- 
ments existing  in  Virginia,  Tennessee,  Arkansas, 
and  Louisiana,  but  instituted  provisional  govern- 
ments for  the  other  States  of  the  defeated  Con- 
federacy, as  it  seemed  impossible  otherwise  to 
bring  order  out  of  the  chaos  which  war  and  finan- 
cial distress  had  brought  about.  He  authorized 
the  assembly  also  of  loyal  conventions  to  elect 


RECONSTRUCTION  WITHOUT  PAIN.          307 

State  and  other  officers,  and  pardoned  by  procla- 
mation everybody,  with  the  exception  of  a  certain 
class  of  the  late  insurgents  whom  he  pardoned 
personally. 

On  Christmas  Day,  1868,  a  Universal  Amnesty 
was  declared.  The  Thirteenth  Amendment,  abol- 
ishing slavery,  became  a  part  of  the  Constitution, 
December  18,  1865,  and  the  former  masters  found 
themselves  still  morally  responsible  for  these 
colored  people,  without  the  right  to  control  them 
or  even  the  money  with  which  to  employ  them. 

The  annual  interest  on  the  national  debt  at  this 
time  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  million 
dollars.  Yet  the  Treasury  paid  this,  together 
with  the  expenses  of  government,  and  reduced 
the  debt  seventy-one  million  dollars  before  the 
volunteer  army  had  been  fully  discharged  in  1 866. 

Comment  on  such  recuperative  power  as  that  is 
unnecessary  ;  for  the  generation  that  fights  a  four- 
years  war  costing  over  two  billions  of  dollars 
generally  leaves  the  debt  for  another  generation 
or  another  century  to  pay. 

Congress  met  finally,  ignored  the  President's 
rollicking  welcome  to  the  seceded  States,  and  over 
his  veto  proceeded  to  pass  various  laws  regarding 
their  admission,  such  as  the  Civil  Rights  and 
Freedman's  Bureau  Bills. 

Tennessee  returned  promptly  to  the  Union 
under  the  Constitutional  Amendments,  but  the 


308         HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

others  did  not  till  the  nightmare  of  Reconstruction 
had  been  added  to  the  horrors  of  war.  In  1868, 
after  much  time  worse  than  wasted  in  carpet-bag 
government  and  a  mob  reign  in  the  South  which 
imperilled  her  welfare  for  many  years  after  it  was 
over,  by  frightening  investors  and  settlers  long 
after  peace  had  been  restored,  representatives 
began  to  come  into  Congress  under  the  laws. 

During  this  same  year  the  hostilities  between 
Congress  and  the  President  culminated  in  an  effort 
to  impeach  the  latter.  He  escaped  by  one  vote. 

It  is  very  likely  that  the  assassination  of  Lincoln 
was  the  most  unfortunate  thing  that  happened  to 
the  Southern  States.  While  he  was  not  a  warrior, 
he  was  a  statesman,  and  no  gentler  hand  or  more 
willing  brain  could  have  entered  with  enthusiasm 
into  the  adjustment  of  chaotic  conditions,  than  his. 

The  Fourteenth  Amendment,  a  bright  little  bon 
mot,  became  a  law  June  28,  1868,  and  was  written 
in  the  minutes  of  Congress,  so  that  people  could 
go  there  and  refresh  their  memories  regarding  it. 
It  guaranteed  civil  rights  to  all,  regardless  of  race, 
color,  odor,  wildness  or  wooliness  whatsoever,  and , 
allows  all  noses  to  be  counted  in  Congressional 
representations,  no  matter  what  angle  they  may 
be  at  or  what  the  color  may  be. 

Some  American  citizens  murmur  at  taxation 
without  representation,  but  the  negro  murmurs  at 
representation  without  remuneration. 


RECONSTRUCTION  WITHOUT  PAIN.          3O9 

The  Fenian  excitement  of  1866  died  out  without 
much  loss  of  life. 

In  October,  1867,  Alaska  was  purchased  from 
Russia  for  seven  million  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  The  ice-crop  since  then  would  more  than 
pay  for  the  place,  and  it  has  also  a  water-power 
and  cranberry  marsh  on  it. 

The  rule  of  the  Imperialists  in  France  prompted 
the  appointment  of  Maximilian,  Archduke  of 
Austria,  as  Emperor  of  Mexico,  supported  by  the 
French  army.  The  Americans,  still  sore  and  in 
debt  at  the  heels  of  their  own  war,  pitied  the  help- 
less Mexicans,  and,  acting  on  the  principles  enunci- 
ated in  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  demanded  the  recall 
of  Maximilian,  who,  deserted  finally  by  his  foreign 
abettors,  was  defeated  and  as  a  prisoner  shot  by 
the  Mexicans,  June  19,  1867. 

The  Atlantic  cable  was  laid  from  Valentia  Bay 
in  Ireland  to  Heart's  Content,  Newfoundland, 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-four  miles, 
and  the  line  from  New  York  to  the  latter  place 
built  in  1856,  a  distance  of  one  thousand  miles, 
making  in  all,  as  keen  mathematicians  will  see, 
two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-four  miles. 

A  very  agreeable  commercial  treaty  with  China 
was  arranged  in  1868. 

Grant  and  Colfax,  Republicans,  succeeded 
Andrew  Johnson  in  the  next  election,  Horatio 
Seymour,  of  New  York,  and  Frank  P.  Blair,  of 


310         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Missouri,  being  the  Democratic  nominees.  Vir- 
ginia and  Mississippi  had  not  been  fully  recon- 
structed, and  so  were  not  yet  permitted  to  vote. 
They  have  squared  the  matter  up  since,  however, 
by  voting  with  great  enthusiasm. 

In  1869  the  Pacific  Railroad  was  completed, 
whereby  the  trip  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific — 
three  thousand  and  three  hundred  miles — might 
be  made  in  a  week.  It  also  attracted  the  Asiatic 
trade,  and  tea,  silk,  spices,  and  leprosy  found  a 
new  market  in  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home 
of  the  brave. 

Still  flushed  with  its  success  in  humorous  legis- 
lation, Congress,  on  the  3Oth  of  March,  1870, 
passed  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  giving  to  the 
colored  men  the  right  to  vote.  It  then  became  a 
part  of  the  Constitution,  and  people  who  have 
seen  it  there  speak  very  highly  of  it. 

Prosperity  now  attracted  no  attention  whatever. 
Gold,  worth  nearly  three  dollars  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  fell  to  a  dollar  and  ten  cents,  and  the 
debt  during  the  first  two  years  of  this  administra- 
tion was  reduced  two  hundred  million  dollars. 

Genuine  peace  reigned  in  the  entire  Republic, 
and  o'er  the  scarred  and  shell-torn  fields  of  the 
South  there  waved,  in  place  of  hostile  banners, 
once  more  the  cotton  and  the  corn.  The  red 
foliage  of  the  gum-tree  with  the  white  in  the 
snowy  white  cotton-fields  and  the  blue-grass  of 


RECONSTR  UCTION  WITHO  UT  PAIN.          3 1 1 

Kentucky  (blue-grass  is  not,  strictly  speaking, 
blue  enough  to  figure  in  the  national  colors,  but 
the  author  has  taken  out  a  poetic  license  which 
does  not  expire  for  over  a  year  yet,  and  he  there- 
fore under  its  permission  is  allowed  a  certain 
amount  of  idiocy)  showed  that  the  fields  had 
never  forgotten  their  loyalty  to  the  national 
colors.  Peace  under  greatly  changed  conditions 
resumed  her  vocations,  and,  in  the  language  of 
the  poet, — 

"  There  were  domes  of  white  blossoms  where  swelled  the  white 

tent; 

There  were  ploughs  in  the  track  where  the  war- wagons  went ; 
There  were  songs  where  they  lifted  up  Rachel's  lament." 

October  8,  1871,  occurred  the  great  fire  in 
Chicago,  raging  for  forty-eight  hours  and  devas- 
tating three  thousand  acres  of  the  city.  Twenty- 
five  thousand  buildings  were  burned,  and  two 
hundred  million  dollars'  worth  of  property.  One 
hundred  thousand  people  lost  their  houses,  and 
over  seven  and  one-half  millions  of  dollars  were 
raised  for  those  who  needed  it,  all  parts  of  the 
world  uniting  to  improve  the  joyful  opportunity 
to  do  good,  without  a  doubt  of  its  hearty  appre- 
ciation. 

Boston  also  had  a  seventy-million  dollar  fire  in 
the  heart  of  the  wholesale  trade,  covering  sixty 
acres  ;  and  in  the  prairie  and  woods  fires  of  Wis- 
consin, Minnesota,  and  Michigan,  many  people 


312         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

lost  not  only  their  homes  but  their  lives.  Fifteen 
hundred  people  perished  in  Wisconsin  alone. 

In  1871  the  damage  done  by  the  Alabama,  a 
British-built  ship,  and  several  other  cruisers  sent 
out  partly  to  facilitate  the  cotton  trade  and  partly 
to  do  a  little  fighting  when  a  Federal  vessel  came 
that  way,  was  assessed  at  fifteen  million  five  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  against  Great  Britain  by 
the  arbitrators  who  met  at  Geneva,  Switzerland, 
and  the  northwestern  boundary  line  between  the 
United  States  and  British  America  was  settled  by 
arbitration,  the  Emperor  of  Germany  acting  as 
arbitrator  and  deciding  in  favor  of  America. 

This  showed  that  people  who  have  just  wound 
up  a  big  war  have  often  learned  some  valuable 
sense  ;  not  two  billion  dollars'  worth,  perhaps,  but 
some. 

San  Domingo  was  reported  for  sale,  and  a  com- 
mittee looked  at  it,  priced  it,  etc.,  but  Congress 
decided  not  to  buy  it. 

The  Liberal  Republican  party,  or  that  element 
of  the  original  party  which  was  opposed  to  the 
administration,  nominated  Horace  Greeley,  of 
New  York,  while  the  old  party  renominated  Gen- 
eral Grant  for  the  term  to  succeed  himself.  The 
latter  was  elected,  and  Mr.  Greeley  did  not  long 
survive  his  defeat. 

The  Modoc  Indians  broke  loose  in  the  early 
part  of  Grant's  second  term,  and,  leaping  from 


3 H          HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

their  lava-beds  early  in  the  morning,  Shacknasty 
Jim  and  other  unlaundried  children  of  the  forest 
raised  merry  future  punishment,  and  the  govern- 
ment, always  kind,  always  loving  and  sweet  toward 
the  red  brother,  sent  a  peace  commission  with  pop- 
corn balls  and  a  gentle-voiced  parson  to  tell  Shack- 
nasty  James  and  Old  Stand-up-and-Sit-down  that 
the  white  father  at  Washington  loved  them  and 
wanted  them  all  to  come  and  spend  the  summer 
at  his  house,  and  also  that  by  sin  death  came  into 
the  world,  and  that  we  were  all  primordial  germs 
at  first,  and  that  we  should  look  up,  not  down, 
look  out,  not  in,  look  forward,  not  backward,  and 
lend  a  hand. 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  Early-to-Bed-and. 
Early-to-Rise-Black  Hawk  and  Shacknasty  James, 
thinking  that  this  thing  had  gone  far  enough, 
killed  General  Canby  and  wounded  both  Mr. 
Meacham  and  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas,  who  had  never 
had  an  unkind  thought  toward  the  Modocs  in  their 
lives. 

The  troops  then  allowed  their  ill  temper  to  get 
the  best  of  them,  and  asked  the  Modocs  if  they 
meant  anything  personal  by  their  action,  and, 
learning  that  they  did,  the  soldiers  did  wfcat  with 
the  proper  authority  they  would  have  done  at  first, 
bombarded  the  children  of  the  forest  and  mussed 
up  their  lava-beds  so  that  they  were  glad  to  sur- 
render. 


RECONSTRUCTION  WITHOUT  PAIN. 


315 


In  1873  a  panic  occurred  after  the  failure  of  Jay 
Cooke  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  and  a  money  strin- 
gency followed,  the  Democrats  attributing  it  a 
good  deal  to  the  party  in  power,  just  as  cheap 
Republicans  twenty  years  later  charged  the  Demo- 


TALKING  ABOUT  THE  CENTENNIAL. 


cratic  administration  with  this  same  thing.  Incon- 
sistency of  this  kind  keeps  good  men,  like  the 
writer,  out  of  politics,  and  turns  their  attention 
toward  the  contemplation  of  a  better  land. 

In  1875  Centennial  Anniversaries  began  to  ripen 
and  continued  to  fall  off  the  different  branches  of 
government,  according  to  the  history  of  events  so 


316         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

graphically  set  forth  in  the  preceding  pages.  They 
were  duly  celebrated  by  a  happy  and  self-made 
people.  The  Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadel- 
phia in  1876  was  a  marked  success  in  every  way, 
nearly  ten  millions  of  people  having  visited  it, 
who  claimed  that  it  was  well  worth  the  price  of 
admission. 

Aside  from  the  fact  that  these  ten  millions  of 
people  had  talked  about  it  to  millions  of  folks  at 
home, — or  thought  they  had, — the  Exposition  was 
a  boon  to  every  one,  and  thousands  of  Americans 
went  home  with  a  knowledge  of  their  country  that 
they  had  never  had  before,  and  pointers  on  blow- 
ing out  gas  which  saved  many  lives  in  after-years. 


MOVE   ON,    MAROON    BROTHER,    MOVE   ON! 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 


CLOSING    CHRONICLES. 

IN    1876   the   peaceful   Sioux   took   an   outing, 
having  refused  to  go  to  their  reservation  in 
accordance  with   the   treaty  made  with   the 
Great  Father  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  regular 
troops  were  sent  against  them. 

General  Custer,  with  the  yth  Regiment,  led  the 
advance,  and  General  Terry  aimed  for  the  rear  of 
the  children  of  the  forest  up  the  Big  Horn.  Here, 
on  the  25th  of  June,  without  assistance,  and  with 

27*  317 


318         HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

characteristic  courage,  General  Custer  attacked 
the  enemy,  sending  Colonel  Reno  to  fall  on  the 
rear  of  the  village. 

Scarcely  enough  of  Custer' s  own  command  with 
him  at  the  time  lived  long  enough  to  tell  the  story 
of  the  battle.  General  Custer,  his  two  brothers, 
and  his  nephew  were  among  the  dead.  Reno 
held  his  ground  until  reinforced,  but  Custer's 
troops  were  exterminated, 

It  is  said  that  the  Sioux  rose  from  the  ground 
like  bunch-grass  and  swarmed  up  the  little  hill  like 
a  pest  of  grasshoppers,  mowing  down  the  soldiers 
with  the  very  newest  and  best  weapons  of  war- 
fare, and  leaving  nothing  at  last  but  the  robbed 
and  mutilated  bodies  lying  naked  in  the  desolate 
land  of  the  Dakotah. 

The  Fenimore  Cooper  Indian  is  no  doubt  a 
brave  and  highly  intellectual  person,  educated 
abroad,  refined  and  cultivated  by  foreign  travel, 
graceful  in  the  grub  dance  or  scalp  walk-around, 
yet  tender-hearted  as  a  girl,  walking  by  night  fifty- 
seven  miles  in  a  single  evening  to  warn  his  white 
friends  of  danger.  The  Indian  introduced  into 
literature  was  a  bronze  Apollo  who  bathed  almost 
constantly  and  only  killed  white  people  who  were 
unpleasant  and  coarse.  He  dressed  in  new  and 
fresh  buckskins,  with  trimming  of  same,  and  his 
sable  hair  hung  glossy  and  beautiful  down  the 
coppery  billows  of  muscles  on  his  back. 


CLOSING    CHRONICLES. 


319 


The  real  Indian  has  the  dead  and  unkempt  hair 
of  a  busted  buggy-cushion  filled  with  hen  feathers. 
He  lies,  he  steals,  he  assassinates,  he  mutilates, 
he  tortures.  He  needs  Persian  powder  long  be- 
fore he  needs  the  theology  which  abler  men  cannot 


ON   HIS   WAY   TO  JOIN   THE   CAVE-BEAR,   THE   THREE-TOED    HORSE,    AND 
THE   ICHTHYOSAURUS. 

agree  upon.  We  can,  in  fact,  only  retain  him  as 
we  do  the  buffalo,  so  long  as  he  complies  with  the 
statutes.  But  the  red  brother  is  on  his  way  to 
join  the  cave-bear,  the  three-toed  horse,  and  the 
ichthyosaurus  in  the  great  fossil  realm  of  the  his- 
toric past.  Move  on,  maroon  brother,  move  on  ! 
Rutherford  B.  Hayes  and  William  A.  Wheeler 
were  nominated  in  the  summer  of  1876,  and  so  close 


320          HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

was  the  fight  against  Samuel  J.  Tilden  and  Thomas 
A.  Hendricks  that  friends  of  the  latter  to  this  day 
refer  to  the  selection  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler  by  a 
joint  Electoral  Commission  to  whom  the  contested 
election  was  referred,  as  a  fraud  and  larceny  on 
the  part  of  the  Republican  party.  It  is  not  the 
part  of  an  historian,  who  is  absolutely  destitute  of 
political  principles,  to  pass  judgment.  Facts  have 
crept  into  this  history,  it  is  true,  but  no  one  could 
regret  it  more  than  the  author  ;  yet  there  has  been 
no  bias  or  political  prejudice  shown,  other  than 
that  reflected  from  the  historical  sources  whence 
information  was  necessarily  obtained. 

Hayes  was  chosen,  and  gave  the  country  an 
unruffled,  unbiased  administration,  devoid  of  frills, 
and  absolutely  free  from  the  appearance  of  hostil- 
ity to  any  one.  He  was  one  of  the  most  concil- 
iatory Presidents  ever  elected  by  Republican  votes 
or  counted  in  by  a  joint  Electoral  Commission. 

He  withdrew  all  troops  from  the  South,  and  in 
several  Southern  States  things  wore  a  Democratic 
air  at  once. 

In  1873  Congress  demonetized  silver,  and  quite 
a  number  of  business-men  were  demonetized  at 
the  same  time  ;  so  in  1878  silver  was  made  a  legal 
tender  for  all  debts.  As  a  result,  in  1879  gold  for 
the  first  time  in  seventeen  years  sold  at  par. 

Troubles  arose  in  1878  over  the  right  to  fish  in 
the  northeast  waters,  and  the  treaty  at  Washing- 


CLOSING    CHRONICLES.  321 

ton  resulted  in  an  award  to  Great  Britain  of  five 
million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  with  the 
understanding  that  wasteful  fishing  should  cease, 
and  that  as  soon  as  either  party  got  enough  for  a 
mess  he  should  go  home,  no  matter  how  well  the 
fish  seemed  to  be  biting. 

The  right  to  regulate  Chinese  immigration  was 
given  by  treaty  at  Pekin,  and  ever  since  the  China- 
man has  entered  our  enclosures  in  some  myste- 
rious way,  made  enough  in  a  few  years  to  live 
like  a  potentate  in  China,  and  returned,  leaving 
behind  a  pleasant  memory  and  a  chiffonnier  here 
and  there  throughout  the  country  filled  with 
scorched  shirt-bosoms,  acid-eaten  collars,  and 
white  vests  with  burglar-proof,  ingrowing  pockets 
in  them. 

The  next  nominations  for  President  and  Vice- 
President  were  James  A.  Garfield,  of  Ohio,  and 
Chester  A.  Arthur,  of  New  York,  on  the  Repub- 
lican ticket,  and  Winfield  S.  Hancock,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  William  H.  English,  of  Indiana,  on  the 
Democratic  ticket.  James  B.  Weaver  was  con- 
nected with  this  campaign  also.  Who  will  tell  us 
what  he  had  to  do  with  it?  Can  no  one  tell  us 
what  James  B.  Weaver  had  to  do  with  the  cam- 
paign of  1 88 1  ?  Very  well  ;  I  will  tell  you  what 
he  had  to  do  with  the  campaign  of  1881. 

He  was  the  Presidential  candidate  on  the 
Greenback  ticket,  but  it  was  kept  so  quiet  that 


322 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


I  am  not  surprised  to  know  that  you  did  not  hear 
about  it. 

After  the  inauguration  of  Garfield  the  investi- 
gation and  annulling  of  star-route  contracts  fraud- 
ulently obtained  were  carried  out,  whereby  two 
million  dollars'  worth  of  these  corrupt  agreements 
were  rendered  null  and  void. 

On  the  morning  of  July  2,  President  Garfield 
was  shot  by  a  poor,  miserable,  unbalanced,  and 

abnormal  growth  whose 
name   will   not  be  discov- 
ered even  in  the  appendix 
of  this  work.     He  was 
tried,    convicted,    and 
sent   squealing   into 
eternity. 

The  President  lin- 
gered patiently  for 
two  months  and  a 
half,  when  he  died. 

After  the  accession 
of  President  Arthur, 
there  occurred  floods 
on  the  lower  Missis- 
sippi,  whereby   one 
hundred  thousand  people  lost 
their  homes.      The  administration 
was  not  in  any  way  to  blame  for 

A  PERSON  JUMPING   FROM   IT   IS   NOT  ,    . 

ALWAYS   KILLED  tfllS. 


CHAMPION 

BRIDGE 

JUMPER.. 


CLOSING   CHRONICLES. 

In  1883  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  across  East  River 
was  completed  and  ready  for  jumping"  purposes. 
It  was  regarded  as  a  great  engineering  success  at 
the  time,  but  it  is  now  admitted  that  it  is  not  high 
enough.  A  person  jumping  from  it  is  not  always 
killed. 

The  same  year  the  Civil  Service  Bill  became  a 
law.  It  provides  that  competitive  examinations 
shall  be  made  of  certain  applicants  for  office, 
whereby  mail-carriers  must  prove  that  they  know 
how  to  teach  school,  and  guards  in  United  States 
penitentiaries  are  required  to  describe  how  to 
navigate  a  ship. 

Possibly  recent  improvements  have  been  made 
by  which  the  curriculum  is  more  fitted  to  the  crime, 
but  in  the  early  operations  of  the  law  the  janitor 
of  a  jail  had  to  know  what  length  shadow  would 
be  cast  by  a  pole  18  feet  6^  inches  high  on  the 
third  day  of  July  at  1 1  o'clock  30  min.  and  20 
sec.  standing  on  a  knoll  35  feet  8^  inches  high, 
provided  8  men  in  9  days  can  erect  such  a  pole 
working  8  hours  per  day. 

In  1883  letter  postage  was  reduced  from  three 
cents  to  two  cents  per  half-ounce,  and  in  1885  to 
two  cents  per  ounce. 

In  1884  Alaska  was  organized  as  a  Territory, 
and  after  digging  the  snow  out  of  Sitka,  so  that 
the  governor  should  not  take  cold  in  his  system, 
it  was  made  the  seat  of  government. 


324          HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

Chinese  immigration  in  1882  was  forbidden  for 
ten  years,  and  in  1884  a  treaty  with  Mexico  was 
made,  a  copy  of  which  is  on  file  in  the  State  De- 
partment, but  not  allowed  to  be  loaned  to  the 
author  for  use  in  this  work. 

Grover  Cleveland  and  Thomas  A.  Hendricks 
were  nominated  and  elected  at  the  end  of  Pres- 
ident Arthur's  term,  running  against  James  G. 
Elaine  and  John  A.  Logan,  the  Republican  candi- 
dates, also  Benjamin  F.  Butler  and  A.  M.  West, 
of  Mississippi,  on  the  People's  ticket,  and  John 
P.  St.  John  and  William  Daniel  on  the  Prohibition 
ticket.  St.  John  went  home  and  kept  bees,  so 
that  he  could  have  honey  to  eat  on  his  Kansas 
locusts,  and  Daniel  swore  he  would  never  enter 
the  performing  cage  of  immoral  political  wild 
beasts  again  while  reason  remained  on  her  throne. 

In  1886  a  Presidential  succession  law  was 
passed,  whereby  on  the  death  of  the  President 
and  the  Vice-President  the  order  of  succession 
shall  be  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  Attorney- 
General,  the  Postmaster-General,  and  the  Secre- 
taries of  the  Navy  and  of  the  Interior.  This  gives 
the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  an  extremely  remote 
and  rarefied  chance  at  the  Presidency.  Still,  he 
should  be  just  as  faithful  to  his  trust  as  he  would 
be  if  he  were  nearer  the  throne. 

May  4,   1886,  occurred  a  terrible   outbreak  of 


CLOSING    CHRONICLES.  325 

Chicago  Anarchists,  whereby  seven  policemen  sent 
to  preserve  order  were  killed  by  the  bursting  of 
an  Anarchist's  bomb.  The  Anarchists  were  tried 
and  executed,  with  the  exception  of  Ling,  who  ate 
a  dynamite  capsule  and  passed  into  rest  having 
had  his  features,  and  especially  his  nose,  blown  in 
a  swift  and  earnest  manner.  Death  resulted,  and 
whiskers  and  beer-blossoms  are  still  found  em- 
bedded in  the  stone  walls  of  his  cell.  Those  who 
attended  the  funeral  say  that  Ling  from  a  scenic 
point  of  view  was  not  a  success. 

Governor  Altgeld,  of  Illinois,  an  amateur  Amer- 
ican, in  the  summer  of  1893  pardoned  two  of  the 
Anarchists  who  had  escaped  death  by  imprison- 
ment. 

August  31,  1886,  in  Charleston,  occurred  several 
terrible  earthquake  shocks,  which  seriously  dam- 
aged the  city  and  shocked  and  impaired  the  nerves 
and  health  of  hundreds  of  people. 

The  noted  heroism  and  pluck  of  the  people  of 
Charleston  were  never  shown  to  greater  advan- 
tage than  on  this  occasion. 

Mr.  Cleveland  was  again  nominated,  but  was 
defeated  by  General  Benjamin  Harrison.  Hon. 
James  G.  Elaine,  of  Maine,  was  made  Secretary 
of  State,  and  Wm.  Windom,  a  veteran  financier, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Secretary  Windom's 
tragic  death  just  as  he  had  finished  a  most  brilliant 
address  to  the  great  capitalists  of  New  York  after 

28 


326         HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

their  annual  dinner  and  discussion  at  Delmonico's 
is,  and  will  ever  remain,  while  life  lasts,  a  most 
dramatic  picture  in  the  author's  memory. 

Personally,  the  administration  of  President  Har- 
rison will  be  long  remembered  for  the  number  of 
deaths  among1  the  families  of  the  Executive  and 
those  of  his  Cabinet  and  friends. 

Nebraska,  the  thirty-seventh  State,  was  admitted 
March  i,  1867.  The  name  signifies  ''Water  Val- 
ley." Colorado,  the  Centennial  State,  was  the 
thirty-eighth.  She  was  admitted  July  i,  1876. 
Six  other  States  have  been  since  admitted  when 
the  political  sign  was  right.  Still,  they  have  not 
always  stuck  by  the  party  admitting  them  to  the 
Union.  This  is  the  kind  of  ingratitude  which 
sometimes  leads  to  the  reformation  of  politicians 
supposed  to  have  been  dead  in  sin. 

President  Harrison's  administration  was  a  thor- 
oughly upright  and  honest  one,  so  far  as  it  was 
possible  for  it  to  be  after  his  party  had  drifted  into 
the  musty  catacombs  of  security  in  office  and  the 
ship  of  state  had  become  covered  with  large  and 
expensive  barnacles. 

As  we  go  to  press,  his  successor,  Grover  Cleve- 
land, in  the  first  year  of  his  second  administration, 
is  paying  a  high  price  for  fleeting  fame,  with  the 
serious  question  of  what  to  do  with  the  relative 
coinage  of  gold  and  silver,  and  the  Democrats  in 
Congress,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 


CLOSING    CHRONICLES.  327 

world,  are  referring  each  other  with  hot  breath 
and  flashing  eye  to  the  platform  they  adopted  at 
the  National  Convention. 

Heretofore  among  the  politicians  a  platform, 
like  that  on  the  railway  cars,  "  is  made  for  the 
purpose  of  helping  the  party  to  get  aboard,  but 
not  to  ride  on." 

The  Columbian  Exposition  and  World's  Fair  at 
Chicago  in  the  summer  of  1893  eclipsed  all  former 
Exhibitions,  costing  more  and  showing  greater 
artistic  taste,  especially  in  its  buildings,  than  any- 
thing preceding  it.  Some  gentle  warfare  resulted 
from  a  struggle  over  the  question  of  opening  the 
"White  City"  on  Sunday,  and  a  great  deal  of 
bitterness  was  shown  by  those  who  opposed  the 
opening  and  who  had  for  years  favored  the  Sun- 
day closing  of  Niagara.  A  doubtful  victory  was 
obtained  by  the  Sunday  openers,  for  so  many  of 
the  exhibitors  closed  their  departments  that  visit- 
ors did  not  attend  on  Sunday  in  paying  quantities. 

Against  a  thousand  odds  and  over  a  thousand 
obstacles,  especially  the  apprehension  of  Asiatic 
cholera  and  the  actual  sudden  appearance  of  a 
gigantic  money  panic,  Chicago,  heroic  and  victo- 
rious, carried  out  her  mighty  plans  and  gave  to 
the  world  an  exhibition  that  won  golden  opinions 
from  her  friends  and  stilled  in  dumb  wonder  the 
jealousy  of  her  enemies. 

In  the  mean   time,   the  author  begs   leave  to 


328         HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

thank  his  readers  for  the  rapt  attention  shown  in 
perusing  these  earnest  pages,  and  to  apologize  for 
the  tears  of  sympathy  thoughtlessly  wrung  from 
eyes  unused  to  weep,  by  the  graphic  word-painting 
and  fine  education  shown  by  the  author. 

It  was  not  the  intention  of  the  writer  to  touch 
the  fountain  of  tears  and  create  wash-outs  every- 
where, but  sometimes  tears  do  one  good. 

In  closing,  would  it  be  out  of  place  to  say  that 
the  stringency  of  the  money  market  is  most  notice- 
able and  most  painful,  and  for  that  reason  would 
it  be  too  much  trouble  for  the  owner  of  this  book 
to  refuse  to  loan  it,  thereby  encouraging  its  sale 
and  contributing  to  the  comfort  of  a  deserving 
young  man  ? 


THE    END. 


APPENDIX. 


THE  idea  of  an  appendix  to  this  work  was 
suggested  by  a  relative,  who  promised  to  pre- 
pare it,  but  who  has  been  detained  now  for  over 
a  year  in  one  ot  the  public  buildings  of  Colorado 
on  the  trumped-up  charge  of  horse-stealing. 
The  very  fact  that  he  was  not  at  once  hanged 
shows  that  the  charge  was  not  fully  sustained, 
and  that  the  horse  was  very  likely  of  little  value. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


28*  329 


